« The CHU ventures into real estate
The announcement by the CHU of the sale of the building it owns at 1, Avenue Georges Clémenceau in Nice sheds light in a particularly harsh way on the determination of some, starting with the Mayor of Nice, President of the CHU, to evict asylum seekers in the midst of winter, including many families with young children, who had found refuge there.
One of the reasons given to justify this persistence was to be able to use this building to house hospital staff. But, whatever the pious declarations of intent from the CHU’s management on this matter, they obviously have not convinced the representatives of those same staff who clearly oppose it.
And we understand them all the more because, when it comes to selling off property, this is not the CHU’s first experience, as they had already sold a block at the corner of Boulevard Gambetta and Rue de France in a much more dilapidated state than this one.
But while the staff await seeing the reality of the promised affordable housing, the affair seems to have been very lucrative for the developer since apartment sales are around €7,000 per m², a highly social rate as everyone can see.
If the staff representatives oppose this type of sell-off, it is because they are well aware of the enormous difficulties faced by staff in finding housing in Nice, especially for the most modest employees. They also know that the share of accessible housing in these programs is more of an afterthought, with most feeding real estate speculation.
Worse, the CHU management laboriously attempts to justify itself by declaring that this money “is part of our plan to return to financial balance… and will mainly serve to finance care improvements”!
There is reason to be concerned about this narrowly financial view of public health promoted by the current administration and its local representatives, which would further make the quality of care dependent on the real estate market! As if everyone’s health were a cost!
More than ever, a different approach to public health is needed, one more supportive and imbued with republican values rather than stock market values! »
Noël ALBIN – Francis TUJAGUE – Jacques VICTOR
Communist General Councilors of the Alpes-Maritimes
