In Saint-Denis, life as a “dog” in unsanitary housing

It is a seemingly ordinary building in the La Plaine district. In the summer of 2022, its white facade with decrepit green shutters was nevertheless decorated with a prefectural decree reporting the unsanitary condition of an apartment located on the first floor.

Nothing of a surprise for Belkheir, 49 years old, and his Malinois Dax, 12 years old, who live together on a daily basis in this eleven square meter room, at a price of 450 euros per month and sometimes with a visit from a cockroach or a rat. Everything has to be redone.

“It’s not a life,” sums up this Algerian, security guard in a large DIY store, with waxed black hair and permanent dark circles.

At night, the adhesive tape around his window is a poor shield against the cold and the noise of the avenue below. And on his single bed hiding a corner of smelly mold, “I sleep like a dog,” he whispers.

After the homes and squats, it was in 2007 that Belkheir unearthed this “good deal”. The place didn't look like much, but "at the time I was undocumented, I had no choice." He now has a residence permit.

The man no longer takes a real shower: the hot water tank blows his electric meter, like other sockets in the apartment, and the pipes leak.

Around him, there is also a kitchen cabinet with smashed doors, clothes piled up in curled boxes. Medications against stress, scattered sick leave.

Substandard housing could affect at least 600.000 homes in France, estimates the Abbé Pierre Foundation, which highlighted this scourge in its annual report published Wednesday evening.

In Saint-Denis, a popular town in Seine-Saint-Denis which will host several Olympic Games events this summer, one in five private housing units is unsanitary, or around 4.500 homes, according to the town hall.

"Like everyone"

Belkheir claims that its owner has always refused to finance work. And now, “she wants me to get out,” he squeaks.

Contacted, the latter told AFP that she had already carried out several repairs at her expense in the apartment, which her tenant had to “maintain” and not “destroy”.

“After the unsanitary order, many owners let time slip away. You just have to wait for a new tenant, and then we start again from scratch,” Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Abbé Foundation, told AFP. Rock.

Belkheir dreams of a “normal” apartment, like everyone else: “a separate kitchen, a clean bathroom, a bedroom for me and a small balcony for my dog”.

But today, “I knocked on all the doors,” he says. His requests for social housing always result in a refusal, he who now says he is ready to move “anywhere”.

“I don’t want to die here,” he says, looking tenderly at his old animal.

In France, 2,6 million households are waiting for social housing, recalls Manuel Domergue. Faced with the shortage, many are turning to the “cheapest” market, namely the one in poor condition, even to slum sellers.

In Saint-Denis, 850 unsanitary housing units, mainly in the city center, are being renovated or rebuilt. A project which will extend over 20 years, according to the PS mayor of this city of more than 110.000 inhabitants, Mathieu Hanotin.

“The communities do not have enough power to move faster and harder on the reduction of substandard housing,” he laments to AFP. Not to mention that since the Covid-19 crisis, many buildings in the town have “tipped over”, he believes.

“Saint-Denis receives 700.000 euros from the State for hygiene services, while the municipality pays more than 2 million euros each year,” underlines Manuel Domergue for his part.

“There is no magic wand against substandard housing,” he concludes. But we must also “stop fueling it with measures to cut APL, reduce HLM production, rental evictions or keeping undocumented immigrants in precarious conditions”.