With the confinement, the situation for homeless people has not really improved. Between small jobs and helping associations, everyone lives or survives in their own way. For us, they testify.
During the months of March and April, if the streets of Saint-Martin seemed empty due to the confinement, they were not totally so. Some residents were unable to confine themselves despite the government obligation. “We were left outside, we were confined to the street,” say Dimitri and Stéphane. Homeless, they had no other choice but to continue their daily life outdoors to survive. But under conditions even less obvious than before. "Before I did odd jobs on the right to left: I carried fridges, I did a little blanket because it's my job…", says Dimitri, in the street for two years. “But since the confinement, there is no more work. I used to take care of the stalls in the market, but since there are no more tourists, there is no longer a market. Now I have to go round to eat. But people have less work and therefore less money to give. And then it is difficult to do the round, you have to swallow your pride ”. Christian, homeless for 3 years now, joins him on this point: "the sleeve is not for me", he confides to us. So he lives only on odd jobs, and associative aid: “thanks to the various food distributions, I eat from Monday to Sunday. Fortunately, the associations are there, ”he admits. “We must not complain. I had a hard time in the street but I'm still there, ”he explains. "I feel good here. We have nothing to complain about in relation to the metropolis ”. For Stéphane, on the street since February, “it's every man for himself” but “there is work, you just have to look”.
Difficulties in finding work
Indeed, the needs in the field of construction are for example numerous. “A lot of people want to hire me because they know I'm a hard worker,” says Dimitri. But working when you live on the street is sometimes complicated. “I was working for ACED but I couldn't continue because I was too tired. I started at 7 am and when you don't sleep at night because you always have to be alert, you can't last very long ”. The material and administrative formalities are another recurring obstacle. "We have just been offered to redo a black roof but we cannot do it because we do not have safety shoes", Stéphane explains to us one morning, accompanied by Dimitri. "We offer you work but we do not give you the means to do it", regrets the latter. And without identity papers, the young man cannot get an official contract. "It took two years to have an address, now I can finally take the steps to have an identity card," he says. If he does his utmost to get by, hard knocks are frequent. “I don't care about alcohol to stop thinking. The Red Cross helps me a lot, but it is not enough. I can't take it anymore, I just want to get out of the street ”.
The Red Cross reception point is back on a good footing
On May 6, an accidental fire ravaged the premises of the Red Cross day care center in Concordia. Charred furniture, blackened walls, melted crockery… all the renovation work done less than a year ago has gone up in smoke. For three months, the Red Cross house could not accommodate any beneficiary. "It was starting to work well, and everything was stopped dead", regrets Ketty Karam-Fischer, president of the territorial delegation. After three months of work, the place reopened its doors on July 3 and people in need come again to drink a coffee, find a listening ear or take a refreshing shower. Since December 2019, the number of passages at the day reception point has risen crescendo, except in March due to containment, to reach a peak in April with 391 passages in the month. At the moment, because of the sanitary measures to be respected, the beneficiaries come in one by one to collect their small snack. But meet in front of the entrance to the house to chat over coffee. Open every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from 16 p.m. to 30 p.m.
(www.lepelican-journal.com)
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