Le Manteau Director, Audrey Gil, in her office. (Robert Luckock photos)
MARIGOT—Le Manteau is the primary shelter on the French side that responds to a growing need to support marginalised people in distress due to homelessness, social difficulties, poverty and violence (the latter against women in particular).
Some of the employees from Le Manteau, From left: Rosina Maurillon (cleaner), Angela Vilcaint Dracon (social worker), Gémie Landre (social worker), Director Audrey Gil, and Fedner Vilssaint (mediator).
The kitchen at Le Manteau.
Le Manteau (translated as overcoat in English) was created as an association by the late Father Charles in the aftermath of Hurricane Luis in 1995 when he permitted the Catholic Church to be used as a temporary shelter. The name was chosen in reference to Saint-Martin of Tours who on his return from a crusade shared his coat with a poor man dying of cold on the side of the road.
Since its creation on December 16, 1999, it has been housed in a part of the old hospital on Rue de Fort Louis, behind the Catholic Church in Marigot, where the kitchen, maintenance department and a maternity wing were located. The building has a dilapidated appearance from the outside and is need of a complete renovation but what goes on inside is what counts.
Lest one gets the wrong impression, the interior is clean and functional. Le Manteau social workers accompany people in precarious situations through assistance with housing, administrative tasks, social and educational support, and most importantly, food aid.
Le Manteau has several programmes running simultaneously and has managed to weather several crises that began with Hurricane Irma in 2017, the 15 days of demonstrations and riots related to the natural risk prevention plan PPRN in December 2019, and the COVID-19 health crisis that began in March 2020. During this time the organisation continued to operate on a daily basis. Today with the rise in the cost of living, loss of jobs and benefits, more and more people are depending on the shelter.
The structure has 14 salaried employees and incorporates a shelter for women on the top floor with 12 beds and a day care reception caters to people in various states of precariousness. Over 600 persons are registered in the various programmes and categories but homeless people of which there are 50 who go to Le Manteau, are not the main group received at the centre.
“We help poorer families with food, help them to get papers, help with administrative procedures, social security, just about everything to do with social accompaniment,” explains Le Manteau director Audrey Gil. “We also help children with their homework as most of the parents cannot help them. For the homeless people we serve every day around 40 breakfasts and 40 lunches for those on the street who cannot cook for themselves. In 2021, 6,488 breakfasts were served and 7,582 lunches.
“They can also take a shower outside and there are toilets and a laundry. We also have a storeroom of clothes and a boutique where we sell clothes once a month. We try to keep them clean as most of the time they are not changing their clothes. The problem is they have low self-esteem but we try to build up their morale and stability. The objective is to help them find a job and place to live.”
If opportunists want to show up to get a free meal, that is no longer possible because of the procedures that are in place to distinguish between free loaders and those who really need help, Gil says when asked.
“Everyone goes through an evaluation procedure undertaken by a social worker. That includes asking for papers, finding out if you have any benefits from the State, if you have a job and how much income you make. Once the evaluation is done then one of the programmes is recommended or the person might be referred to another association if the problem does not fall within the scope of Le Manteau. Once the need for food aid is determined for a homeless person, it is granted. The person might want to take away a food box if he or she does not want to eat at the day care.”
For those whose income is less than 150 euros per month after all taxes and rent is paid, they are entitled to meals or a take-away food box. If income is between 150 to 300 euros after all taxes and rent are paid, they are eligible to use the Solidarity Shop inside a mobile truck where food items are discounted by 30% compared to standard shops and supermarkets thanks to a scheme set up by the Collectivité in collaboration with Caisse d’ Allocation Familiale (CAF).
According to Gil, women who use the accommodation at the shelter either have found themselves homeless because they couldn’t pay the rent or are victims of domestic abuse. They can stay with their children until a solution is found for them. There were 79 requests for accommodation from women in 2021. There is no accommodation for men, only for day care. That should change soon as Gil hopes to acquire an adjacent unused building where men can stay the night. The Collectivité has approved the request and financing is being sought to renovate it.
As for the Marina Port La Royale situation where the car park has been frequented for years by drug addicts and vagrants, Gil is not confident of a lasting solution being found there. Various proposed projects and promises over the years have all come to nothing.
“Most of those people don’t come to Le Manteau, they stay in their mini-ghettos, like in Agrément. But the Red Cross does visit them regularly and helps them as best they can.”
A recent development for Le Manteau has been the acquisition of accommodation in French Quarter and Friars Bay in a programme called “Family Pension” that has a total of 20 beds.
“This is for people who have psychological problems or handicaps. They already have some income but we rent the accommodation to them at a lower rate. So, we have three houses in French Quarter and a guest house in Friar’s Bay.”
Poverty on the French side is acute and partly attributed to illegal immigration, Gil states. These undocumented persons are not turned away but are given food and help.
“But also, it’s caused by the aftermath of Irma where people still have not been able to fix their houses because they did not have insurance and they lost their jobs. Before they could get a small job but now it’s much more difficult.”
Among the 14 employees at Le Manteau are a cook, cleaner, maintenance man, two night time security guards, secretary, food truck assistants, four social workers, and a mediator. Someone also visits to organise activities such as Yoga. Due to the situation people are in who use Le Manteau, tension, fights and arguments frequently arise necessitating intervention by police or gendarmes. Christmas is especially a bad time for tension.
Gil has been director of Le Manteau for seven years now. She was previously an educator and social worker at the special needs school Service d’ Education Spéciale et de Soins à Domicile (SESSAD) in Marigot. She subsequently trained for two years to obtain her director’s diploma and has a Master’s degree in management. Before coming to St. Martin, she worked with troubled teenagers in French Guiana and France.
Le Manteau receives 70 per cent of its financial support from the State while the Collectivité and other social entities, associations and foundations, contribute. The operating budget is around 800,000 euros.
Since January 2021 Le Manteau has been taken over by Association Laïque pour L’Education, la Formation, la Prévention et L’Autonomie (ALEFPA) an organisation specialised in children and adult disabilities with 150 branches in France, Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Réunion, and French Guiana.
“Thanks to ALEFPA we are now bigger and thanks to them we were able to purchase the guest house in Friar’s Bay,” Gil discloses. “Before as a small association we could not borrow money from the bank but now it’s a different story. It’s good for us because we can send our employees for training in Guadeloupe or visit our counterparts to have exchanges and see how they are working.”
