Anti-homeless urban furniture: associations call for “a start”

“The phenomenon is increasing, we are seeing that this type of furniture is spreading in an insidious manner, it could be the work of transport authorities, businesses or communities,” Christophe Robert, general delegate of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, told AFP. (FAP).

“This says a lot about the way people who have nothing are perceived and treated: you are already very fragile and precarious and on top of that we want to prevent you from resting and sheltering yourself,” he denounces. -he.

Faced with this observation, the emblematic association fighting against precariousness and exclusion decided on Thursday to relaunch its "golden peaks", a satirical awards ceremony for the worst anti-homeless urban furniture.

After two first editions in 2019 and 2020, this ceremony was interrupted due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The next edition will be held on November 18 at the Théâtre de l'Atelier, in Paris.

Until then, the Abbé Pierre Foundation is calling on citizens to report on a dedicated website - lespicsdor.fr - furniture hostile to homeless people: spikes, bars, grills, rocks, planters, single-seat benches, etc.

Also very engaged on the subject, the La Cloche association launched an awareness campaign entitled #StopMobilierExcluant in the run-up to this summer's Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"Unlike athletes, Amrit and Jacques would like to stay on a bench", "to find welcoming street furniture, Christelle and Ana can always run"...broadcast on its site and on social networks, the visuals focus on humor and irony to try to provoke a “start”.

"Inhuman"

“Beyond the anti-homeless measures, we see that there are fewer and fewer places to sit or relax in certain cities,” underlines Goli Moussavi, director of a local branch of the association. .

If in recent years, cities (Paris, Lille or Lyon) have made strong commitments in favor of the rights of people on the streets - in particular by signing the Declaration of the Rights of Homeless People supported by the FAP, "this is not not the case for private landlords,” she adds.

This “inhumane” policy has “become fashionable” and is sometimes “integrated by urban planners themselves”, agrees Christophe Robert. The general delegate of the Abbé Pierre Foundation still remembers "a shower installed in a parking lot entrance, which was triggered as soon as a person sat underneath."

“And all this doesn't solve anything, it only pushes homeless people out of the city center, it makes them invisible,” continues Christophe Robert, who also denounces the anti-begging orders taken in recent years by several cities, the image of Melun or Amiens.

With the "golden peaks", the association wants to believe that the ceremony will contribute to raising awareness, like a bank which, faced with the excitement aroused a few years ago, had ultimately acted rear by removing the picks placed in front of one of its Parisian agencies.

According to the latest figures from the Abbé Pierre Foundation, 330.000 people are homeless in France, a figure which has more than doubled in ten years.