In the Parisian suburbs, residents and communities are fighting against broken elevators

In this 62% HLM building in Dugny (Seine-Saint-Denis) as in many towns in the Paris suburbs, tenants and owners are exasperated by repeated elevator breakdowns and long response times.

"My daughters come to do my shopping and I sometimes go and stay with them for a few days. On the stairs, I'm always afraid of falling," says Fatima Sebbane, whom her granddaughter is helping to get back up that evening.

The elevator in the building has been stopped since a flood in May and neither the lessor nor the elevator operator "tell us when it will finally be restarted", explains in the hall his neighbor Florence Dubontel, 66 years, who circulated several petitions to their attention.

At the end of September, the Ile-de-France region launched a "lift plan" aimed at accelerating the renovation of a vast aging fleet through funding - lifts in the Ile-de-France region represent half of the national fleet, a quarter of them have more 40 years old - and to offer a temporary alternative to those most affected.

“These breakdowns rot the lives of the inhabitants, especially the most fragile, and can lead to real confinement”, underlines to AFP Jean-Philippe Dugoin-Clément, vice-president of Ile-de-France in charge of Housing. .

To "deal with the most urgent", the region promises in its plan to subsidize the purchase of 40 "stairlift" wheelchairs, which will be made available to Ile-de-France residents by the collective "Plus sans elevator".

Created in 2019 and now approved by municipalities, the organization intends, thanks to these towed chairs, to "give a little autonomy" to people with reduced mobility. And proposes to all those concerned to appeal to their side lift operators and landlords, regularly given formal notice.

"Landlords are overwhelmed by the fact that tenants have become more demanding and are asserting their right to enjoy peaceful housing. For elevators to work in beautiful neighborhoods and not in popular suburbs, this is no longer possible" , poses Micaël Vaz, spokesperson for "No longer without a lift".

"Lack of elevator operators"

In the city of 4.000, in La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis), "breakdowns have not surprised anyone for a long time", sighs Hamid Abderamane, 54. In its fifteen-storey building, the elevator that serves the even numbers has been stopped for “several weeks”. "Before it was that of the odd floors, so no jealousy," he quips.

The tenants of the building regularly help Bernadette, 73, to come down from her house, on the second floor. Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis which "nibbles" her joints, the old lady limps from walk to walk, clinging to her cane.

At the end of October, the department voted a "wish for the right to vertical mobility", which supports in particular "the introduction into the law of a health clause obliging landlords, owners and elevator operators to offer an alternative in the event of immobilization of an elevator".

In Aulnay-sous-Bois, the owner of Meriem Bensaïd posts "sometimes" agents in the hall responsible for carrying the bags, but "with three young children, it's complicated to adapt to their schedules, they are not not often there".

Since December 2021, the elevator in his new building has only worked for "a few weeks". "With the children, I sometimes have to wait for my husband to come home to be able to go up (the four floors). My neighbor was forced to spend the last weeks of her pregnancy locked up," says the 26-year-old young woman.

According to Jean-Philippe Dugoin-Clément, the long response times are due in particular to a "deficit of lift operators", which the "lift plan" would like to gradually remedy by participating in the financing of a BTS in Ile-de- France.

The Lift Federation is calling for an extension to lifts of the MaPrimeRénov' system, to help with energy renovation. According to her, the renovation of a 40-year-old appliance would make it possible to "achieve 65% savings" on an energy bill.