Homeless in Paris: how the State got caught in the carpet in Brittany – Homeless in Paris: can Brittany welcome them?

Ambiguity, secrecy, verticality and unpreparedness. In terms of form, these are the four deadly sins of which the State in Brittany has been guilty, with the creation of the airlock dedicated to the reception of homeless people from Paris, in Bruz, near Rennes. A series of implausible faults with regard to the explosiveness of the subject.

On the social level, it makes elected officials fear the risk of a similar scenario in Callac (22) and Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (44), where projects to welcome asylum seekers have turned into serious public order problems after being exploited by the extreme right. On a political level, it also risks further weakening the position of the presidential majority, a few weeks before the presentation in the Council of Ministers of the future immigration bill wanted by Emmanuel Macron.

Ambiguity ? To appreciate it, it suffices, for example, to compare the communication from the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine with the terms of the ministerial circular which sets out “the guidelines for the care (…) of people placed at shelter”. Dated March 5, it was signed by Ministers Gérald Darmanin (interior) and Olivier Klein (housing). It details the methods of “examination” of “all the people directed within an airlock” in order to “qualify their administrative situation with regard to the right of asylum”. Clearly, these airlocks were first thought of as accommodation and administrative “triage” centers for wandering refugees in Île-de-France, where 50% of national migratory flows converge. An objective assumed by Sylvain Mathieu, the interministerial delegate for accommodation and access to housing (Dihal) in an article in Le Monde published on March 29, which was partly erased from the language of the prefecture during the presentation of the Bruz project on Tuesday 23 May.

This highlights the accommodation of “homeless people from Paris”, without denying that exiles are among them. A semantic ambiguity intended “to hide from Bretons that 100% of the” homeless Parisians “are illegal immigrants who will benefit from an incredible foreign preference put in place by the government”, tackled Gilles Pennelle, the leader of the RN in Brittany, which did not ask for so much…

The state also cultivates ambiguity about the reasons that led it to open these provincial airlocks with such haste. Is it a question of emptying the misery of Paris so as not to tarnish the image of our country during the Paris Olympics? All those involved in the case are convinced of this. Rio, Vancouver, London, Beijing… On a global scale, this would be far from being a first. If we believe it, the French state does not eat this bread: “No one takes the pretext of a sporting event to solve a humanitarian problem”, was offended Olivier Klein on Franceinfo Thursday. “It is simply the continuity of the “Housing first” plan launched in 2018”, for his part, cleared Matthieu Blet, the secretary general of the prefecture during the presentation of the Bruz project.

The local elected officials fulminate to have been placed before the fait accompli. The state, for its part, denies having acted in “secret”. The proof ? The “numerous press articles” published on the subject before its formalization, advanced Matthieu Blet, during the presentation of the “airlock” of Bruz.

Articles, which we had a hard time finding, with the exception of a paper from 20 Minutes, dated March 3, produced on the sole basis of information from associations and that of Le Monde, quoted upper. Neither of them spoke of Bruz. Another factual element, no public meeting was organized to associate the inhabitants. A method that goes against the recommendations of a parliamentary report, published earlier this week and revealed by Le Figaro.

On the contrary, it insists on the importance of the pedagogy to be carried out on this type of project to prevent it from being associated “with an arbitrary approach by the State”, subject to instrumentalization. The approach of the prefect of Corrèze, Étienne Delplanque, is also welcomed there. In addition to organizing an information meeting, the senior official sent a letter, accompanied by a number of frequently asked questions, to all the inhabitants of the villages concerned by the setting up of a reception center for job seekers asylum in the department. An approach from which the State should draw inspiration, notes the report, one of the authors of which, the deputy of the majority Mathieu Lefèvre, turns out to be a former adviser to… Gérald Darmanin.

An “archaic” and “completely vertical” decision taken by a “State which considers local authorities as its auxiliary administration”. The political scientist Romain Pasquier seems to have summed up well, in our columns, the feeling that prevails among local officials. ?

This Jupiterian inclination adds to other important tensions that exist between the central state and elected officials who are increasingly annoyed at having to manage, on the front line, the after-sales service of decisions imposed on them from Paris. Another recent example of tension: the implementation of the Zero net artificialisation (Zan). Concocted in the Climate and Resilience law, the Zan will require elected officials to drastically reduce land consumption, in the midst of the housing crisis and even as the President of the Republic insists on the reindustrialization of the country. All this on the basis of surfaces imposed without consultation. “If we continue like this, there will be no more elected officials”, confided the mayor of a Breton agglomeration on this subject at the start of the week.

“An effort of framework and method”. This is how Sylvain Matthieu, the senior official of the Ministry of Housing in charge of the file, presented the airlocks at the end of March. Two months later, the situation on the ground shows that this objective is wishful thinking. Barely unveiled, the soil of the place favored by the State to install the Bruz airlock has turned out to be polluted by heavy metals… Above all, no one knows how local actors will be able to absorb this new influx into reception facilities. emergency already completely overcrowded. The State ensures that new places will be opened without specifying where and how many.

However, it would be time. The Breton airlock project was unveiled on May 22. The first arrivals of coaches from Paris are announced between the “end of May and the beginning of June”. In an attempt to keep to this schedule, the State therefore evacuated and relocatedpeople, accommodated in a hotel in Montgermont by the 115, to free up places for the Parisian homeless. Emptying people in danger from a shelter to place others? On this subject, “we observe a combo of weak points”, annoys a source close to the Élysée where we are already worried about possible public safety problems.