Housing, what if you are asked to go out?

Crédit photo : par Leon Macapagal/Unsplash

Be careful and read in detail the official notification that informs you that you should leave the center! Verify that the motive given to you is based on legal texts!

In the Île-de-France region (Parisian region), accommodation was previously proposed even for immigrants who had never sought asylum or were no longer asylum seekers (after receiving a negative response). These places were provided by the Migrant Emergency Housing Centers (CHUM), which depended on the respective prefectures. But on January 1, 2019, they changed to HUDA and since accept only asylum seekers. According to Aurore association¹ (2019), this brought major changes for many migrants, who were notified and continue to be notified that they should leave.

GISTI: Emergency Housing Centers are subject to the Family and Social Action Code (CASF, Articles L. 345-2- 2 et L. 345-2-3), and nothing in the law allows the motivation to terminate a person's housing due to a change in administrative status - only if you have been offered another place to live.

In each of these centers, the closure of a particular service is accompanied by a special procedure that usually gives you a period before you should hit the road. Be careful and read in detail the official notification that informs you that you should leave the center! It may happen that the reasons cited are not completely based on the law. "Before leaving the center, you can verify with an association that your center has fully complied with the removal procedure," says the GISTI, which specializes in legal advice for immigrants in France.

According to it, it is possible to refuse to leave some centers even when they show you the relevant notifications of the prefecture or OFII, that require your departure. Therefore, GISTI has compiled a list of detailed legal advice which you can find here in French².

In short, what do these tips and legal advice say? First, “they address to the immigrants living in emergency shelters (CHUs), often called CHUM, CARA, or HUAS. If you live in a shelter with another name (CADA, PRADHA, HUDA), the following tips do not suit you ", explains GISTI².

Legal and illegal reasons?

According to the association³ , “… many people sheltered in these centers have been receiving notification from the center staff, often at the request of the prefecture, of the termination of accommodation, without proposing another housing option.

There are ways to avoid hitting the road.

First, verify that the motive given to you is based on legal texts.

The motives provided by law are:

1. A very long absence in the center (you haven’t been living there for a long time - author's note)
2. Dangerous behavior
3. Rejection of adequate housing
4. Refusal of an interview with social services
5. The reasons that are usually given in the official notification and that are contrary to the law, according to GISTI, are:
6. Absence during a meeting with the administration (especially for asylum seekers placed in the "Dublin" procedure)
7. Granting or denying asylum seeker status.
8. ⁃Absence during the passing to GIP HIS (a social structure that offers solutions for the accommodation of refugees, but which, according to the association, cannot be defined as a mandatory interview with social services and does not stand as a reason to request your departure from the center -author's note).

«Emergency Housing Centers are subject to the Family and Social Action Code (CASF, Articles L. 345-2- 2 et L. 345-2-3), and nothing in the law allows the motivation to terminate a person's housing due to a change in administrative status - only if you have been offered another place to live ", - explains GISTI in this summary of legal advice, emphasizing that it is good to talk openly with the managers of the center about your lack of housing opportunities, to ask for the help of solidarity people outside the center, to organize with other residents in order to make joint resistance and, above all, to seek the help of an association.

References:                                                                                                                                       

¹La Croix, (juin 2019), Les associations se mobilisent contre les remises à la rue de migrants

https://www.la-croix.com/France/Immigration/associations-mobilisent-contre-remises-rue-migrants-2019-06-16-1201029219

² GISTI. « Que faire en cas de risque de remise à la rue dans un centre d’hébergement d’urgence »

https://www.gisti.org/IMG/pdf/suspension_hebergement.pdf

* This article is produced as part of the “Migration, Youth and Internet” project. It is written by Elda Spaho Bleta, volunteer of the local group Oxfam in Nancy, who paid close attention to the information given. The sources of the information are cited, and when personal advice is given, it is the sole responsibility of the editor. If, despite her attention, an error had slipped into the document, please report it to her by writing to [email protected]. This article is published with the funds of the French Development Agency, Grand Est Solidarités et Coopérations pour le Développement (GESCOD), and with the support of Oxfam France. The content of the articles does not engage the structures previously named.