Saint-Nicolas: A Moroccan family of five children threatened with eviction

The anti-eviction front organized a rally on Wednesday, November 5 in front of the town hall to denounce the threat of eviction hanging over the family, who are waiting to be rehoused. Following this outburst, a meeting was held between members of the family, volunteers from the anti-eviction front and the mayor. "In terms of civil and criminal liability, the order of uninhabitability must be maintained since there is a problem with the compliance, particularly technical, of the building," explains Valérie Maes, the socialist mayor of Saint-Nicolas.

And she continues: "If I suspend it, the building must be renovated and to be renovated, the owner must be able to access the building and carry out the work inside the building on the basis of the report that the Walloon Housing Company has launched, has sent me and that I have had to endorse, of course, in terms of safety." The mayor specifies, however, that the family will not be automatically evicted from the dwelling, but that the order will be notified to the owner who acknowledges renting a building "struck by uninhabitability, and therefore he, most likely, can take an eviction measure."

Following the explanations of the socialist, volunteers from the anti-eviction front expressed their anger, calling for the suspension of this order, until the family finds a new home. "It’s crazy because if we didn’t move, you did nothing," fumes a volunteer. The mayor’s reaction did not wait. "Seriously, I did nothing? I moved half the municipal administration, I answered the letter 4 times, I contacted the Walloon Region, I called the emergency housing, I called the social housing, I called the AIS, and I did nothing?" she retorts.

The official continues: "I’m leaving it (the order) because there’s a gas non-compliance. Would you want to leave a family in a building that could explode, sir? Could you sleep with that?" "I feel a little lost, because there have been steps and it’s starting to move a little. I know there won’t be an eviction with a police force. That reassures us a little, but we’re still worried because we don’t know how it’s going to go with the owner and if he’s going to take steps to evict us," declares a teenage member of the family who attended the meeting. The front promises to closely follow the case to prevent this family from ending up on the street by November 13.