L’abandon, reflet d’un désengagement collectif ?

A) Passivité et culture de la pauvreté

Les acteurs municipaux évoquent la banalité de la vacance dans ces quartiers, qui conduirait les habitants à une tolérance plus grande à l’égard des signes de dégradation que dans des quartiers plus aisés :

The whole side of the street was just empty, buildings... The doors were wide open, windows were broken out, kids were walking to school in front of it as if there was nothing going on. It was just a regular part of that neighborhood's [NDLR : West Humboldt Park] kind of dealing with stuff.

Citation 50 - Entretien 7, City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development I mean the tolerance level in some neighborhoods is different for what they're willing to accept. If you just have... In a better neighborhood, if you have a vacant building that in another neighborhood wouldn't be bad at all, it's just a little bit boarded, they're going to go insane. You know it's all what the neighbors will tolerate, who the neighbors are... I guess it's more of a block by block issue, depending on who the neighbors are.

Citation 51 - Entretien 9, City of Chicago Department of Buildings

As long as you have a house, you're good. Of course now you got a blue tarp72 on top, maybe you

don't have the floors that work. And they just worked around it all their lives. Sometimes those guys don't realize the poor shape of their house, because that's how they lived in it.

Citation 52 - Entretien 36, Habitat for Humanity, Houston

Ces propos, qui suggèrent que les résidents pauvres seraient trop habitués au délabrement pour y voir une anomalie, renvoient aux débats sur l’existence d’une « culture de la pauvreté » (Lewis, 1966 ; Moynihan, 1965). Parce que la dégradation de leurs conditions de vie constitue pour eux la norme, les ménages défavorisés éprouveraient plus de difficultés à sortir de cette situation, et donc à intervenir pour limiter les effets du déclin. Un tel discours, tenu par des acteurs extérieurs aux quartiers dégradés, tend à justifier une intervention limitée des autorités,

185 engagées dans une démarche essentiellement réactive (cf. Chapitre 5) : il est inutile d’intervenir systématiquement pour l’entretien d’un quartier si les habitants sont indifférents au délabrement.

Cependant, les entretiens réalisés avec des habitants incitent à écarter l’hypothèse de l’indifférence. C’est au contraire parce qu’ils se sentent abandonnés par les instances municipales que les résidents font preuve d’une certaine passivité (cf. 3.3.1.). La quasi totalité des résidents et des leaders locaux rencontrés sur le terrain affirme ne pas signaler les bâtiments vacants et les friches aux autorités, à l’exception des cas d’activités illégales (squatteurs, pillards, trafic de drogue) pour lesquels ils appellent la police. Les systèmes de signalement comme la plateforme 311 (numéro d’appel ou application mobile) sont rarement utilisés parce qu’ils sont jugés peu efficaces :

Jose : There's three [vacant lots on the block]. They've always been vacant since we moved. Whoever

owns them... I tried to call 311 about it because a lot of people just throw trash on them, and you know with the wind it just blows everywhere. So that's one of the things that make our street look bad, because of those vacant lots. Other than that, everything is clean.

Florence : What happened when you called the City?

Jose : Not a lot of help from them. Like I said they would just refer you to another number. They

would tell me I have to find out who owns them and I have to contact them!

Citation 53 – Jose, Habitant de West Humboldt Park, Chicago The City of Houston does have a department that's called the Department of Neighborhoods, that does physical inspection of properties and will issue a citation. But the same thing will transpire: if there is a vacant or an abandoned property, the amount of legal and paperwork that the City has to impose to do something about it, it's just unbelievable. So you know in terms of immediate action, I don't call anybody. We'll have to do something about it ourselves, and assume the risk or assume the liability associated with that, or we can call and report it and wait for years for something to be done about it. So as a comprehensive redevelopment corporation, it's not our role, but if we see something that's a challenge, there's nobody to call: I am it! [Rire] And that's not an understatement. You want something done about it, you have to do it yourself.

Citation 54 - Entretien 34, Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Houston

Plus généralement, nombre d’habitants considèrent que leur quartier est négligé par la Ville (Citation 42), qui renvoie aux riverains la responsabilité de la gestion locale à travers des organisations de quartier comme les block clubs :

Florence : And how do you feel about what has been done by the City to address vacancies? Richard : The City don’t do nothing. They came up with a strategy now that they're trying to have

everybody doing block clubs and meet with the alderman. And you really got to be on them to start fixing stuff up. Just like on Chicago Avenue, they just did the whole street: "we've been trying to get you to do the street for ten years!"

186

Citation 55 – Richard, Habitant de West Humbold Park, Chicago

Certains soulignent même le népotisme qui règne selon eux à l’échelon municipal, en particulier à Chicago où les affaires de corruption sont régulièrement relayées par les médias73.

Florence : What do you think about what the City's been doing to target vacant properties? Jim : I've been here all my life, I know them gangsters gonna do what gangsters do. They're gonna

monopolize, do what they do, no matter what happens. The City of Chicago is about who you know. Citation 56 – Jim, Habitant de West Humbold Park, Chicago

B) Une multitude d’actions spontanées individuelles

Les habitants ne sont pas passifs pour autant. Les insuffisances de l’action publique pointées par les acteurs locaux suscitent des formes d’auto-organisation, comme cela a pu être observé à Détroit où les habitants suppléent des services publics déficients en assurant eux-mêmes la surveillance et l’entretien des maisons abandonnées du voisinage (Kinder, 2016). Ces pratiques informelles propres aux quartiers dégradés constituent une forme d’adaptation qui permet aux résidents de supporter une condition matérielle et sociale difficile (Harvey et Reed, 1996) : « [the culture of poverty] is both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their marginal position in a

class-stratified, highly individuated, capitalistic society. It represents an effort to cope with feelings of hopelessness and despair that arise from the realization by the members of the marginal communities in these societies of the improbability of their achieving success in terms of the prevailing values and goals. Many of the traits of the culture of poverty can be viewed as local, spontaneous attempts to meet needs not served in the case of the poor by the institutions and agencies of the larger society because the poor are not eligible for such service, cannot afford it or are ignorant and suspicious » (Lewis, 1966, p. 21).

Ces initiatives spontanées prennent différentes formes : il s’agit le plus souvent de l’entretien d’une friche adjacente par un riverain (visible également sur la Figure 48), mais l’intervention des habitants peut parfois viser la sécurisation d’un bâtiment inoccupé :

Jim : Two [vacant lots on the block] have some kind of fence. But the rest of them they're not fenced. Florence : Is there garbage on them or are they ok?

Jim : Sometimes. Well the one directly next to me, my landlord, she go out there and clean up.

Citation 57 – Jim, Habitant de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

73 Trente conseillers municipaux de Chicago ont été condamnés pour des délits en lien avec leur fonction officielle depuis 1972 (Chicago Tribune, 2019).

187

I call it Dr Property. They're trying to do that on different blocks. I know one guy, he did that: he put a chain around the gates ‘cause they were selling drugs out of the building, it was an abandoned building. They moved in the building like it was their building. So the guy next door, his mother and father stayed there, so he was worried about them selling drugs and stuff. So he went and bought a lockchain, keep the grass cut and everything, and take care of the building. It was boarded up but he cut the grass and everything around the building because he was worried about his mother and father. It's not too often that happens, but you know a lot of them do it for their parents.

Citation 58 – Richard, Habitant de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

La logique qui sous-tend ces actions dans le discours des résidents renvoie à la théorie de la vitre brisée : même inoccupé, un bâtiment vacant serait moins susceptible d’attirer des activités indésirables s’il est entretenu (Citation 58), que cela reflète véritablement l’implication d’un individu ou qu’il s’agisse simplement de « créer l’illusion que ce bâtiment importe à quelqu’un » :

I actually put together a proposal to work with banks, the City and others that own these vacant spaces to hire, you know at a small fee, some of the young guys that are in the community just to keep them clean. Because I feel like... Obviously the goal is to sell them right, we want owners there. But we also don't want just god-awful spaces just running rampant. And so again if we can create the illusion that somebody cares about this building, even by keeping the porch swept or keeping the grass cut or anything like that, you create the illusion that somebody's paying attention: what you do is drive away the negative activity there, and that's helpful for everyone.

Citation 59 – Shirley, Habitante de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

Dans certains cas, l’action des résidents peut aller jusqu’à l’annexion de facto d’une propriété délaissée pour un usage personnel (stationnement de véhicules, fermeture par un grillage, etc.) mais il s’agit de pratiques rarement pérennes qui ne supposent pas d’aménagements ou des aménagements mineurs (cf. Figure 47) :

One lot, it is used like a parking lot. And I'm guilty of that because I do construction, and they ticket me every time the police goes by because my vehicle they consider it as a commercial vehicle, so I can't park it on my block. So I just have to park it on that lot.

Citation 60 – Jose, Habitant de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

Un seul cas d’appropriation durable d’une propriété délaissée m’a été rapporté, celui de l’annexion d’un bâtiment vacant à des fins d’exploitation rentière. Dans ce cas quelque peu extrême, la personne qui se faisait passer pour le propriétaire du bien a utilisé le bâtiment durant plusieurs années et a donc investi dans des travaux de réparation et d’entretien. Mais il s’agit d’un cas unique peu représentatif des pratiques les plus courantes :

Richard : One of the buildings on the block, this lady took the boards off like she owned the

188

and everything, and rented it out like it was her building! She rented that building out for like 4 years.

Florence : And where was the real owner?

Richard : Who knows? They came one day and told her "hey!", they boot her out: "you need to

move, this ain't your building!" So they gave her a couple thousand dollars to come up out the building. Well she fixed it up like it was her building. Something go wrong, you call her, she had people over there fixing the building and everything, like it was hers. I though it was her building too!

Citation 61 – Richard, Habitant de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

En réalité, un grand nombre de résidents participent d’une façon ou d’une autre à l’entretien des terrains vagues et à la surveillance des bâtiments vacants du quartier (Citation 62, Citation 66) : lors des entretiens avec des riverains de West Humboldt Park à Chicago, presque tous ont pu citer des exemples de voisins qui tondaient la pelouse d’une friche, ramassaient les détritus sur les parcelles adjacentes ou vérifiaient qu’une maison abandonnée restait bien fermée et inoccupée. De la même façon, dans le quartier de New City, une employée du Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council m’a rapporté que les cas d’entretien, voire d’aménagement spontané des friches étaient fréquents dans son quartier. Cependant, ce type d’initiative est plus fréquent pour les friches que pour les bâtiments vacants et il prend rarement une forme pérenne, capable de transformer durablement le quartier.

C) Intervenir à ses risques et périls

Les résidents avancent de nombreux arguments qui témoignent des obstacles entravant les initiatives spontanées d’entretien des propriétés délaissées. Le premier obstacle relève du risque associé aux activités illégales, voire criminelles, qui se déroulent dans les bâtiments vacants.

Stella (mère) : The house right next door to me, I mean when we moved in... I knew the lady for

years and she had children, and then she got a different house on the South Side. Her son was trying to keep up with the property, but I guess he couldn't afford it either, the property taxes or something, so they moved out. And then it sat there for a couple years. I tried to watch the place so that things didn't get wrong.

Leo (fils) : You know, keep up the lawn, make it look nice so... You know. But after a while you

see all sorts of shady individuals go in. It felt really unsafe living next door. (…)

Stella : And yet I don't call the police, ‘cause I don't want to end up dead somewhere...

189 La peur des représailles, étudiée notamment pour ce qui concerne le trafic de drogue (Vargas, 2016), tend à limiter la capacité d’action des résidents confrontés à des activités criminelles, ce qui est fréquemment le cas concernant les bâtiments délaissés. Habitants et acteurs locaux, de même que les inspecteurs lors des audiences, multiplient les exemples de pratiques illégales recensées dans les bâtiments vacants du voisinage (combats de coqs ou de chiens, jeux d’argent, fusillades, stockage de drogue ou d’armes, etc.) :

When our guys went to board up the building and start work in the building, some guys came up to them and said: "Hum, are you with the police?" They're like: "No. We have to board up this building." He said: "Could you give us five minutes?" And they came walking out with guns.

Citation 63 – Entretien 14, Bureau NHS de West Humboldt Park, Chicago Most of them are unofficially converted into crack houses or you know they're used to hold drugs and stash all kinds of weapons and things like that, because you know there's no one paying attention to them and seemingly no one cares about them. (…) People squatting and just coming in, living in buildings. You hear all types of fighting in them at night, and you know sometimes even gunshots inside the buildings and so it's really horrible.

Citation 64 – Shirley, Habitante de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

De ce fait, les riverains ont plutôt tendance à éviter les bâtiments abandonnés et à renvoyer leur gestion à la Ville ou à la police en cas d’activité suspecte. Plus généralement, au-delà des questions de sécurité, le statut juridique particulier des propriétés délaissées dissuade toute prise en charge individuelle du problème. Même si le propriétaire est invisible ou semble avoir disparu, il s’agit toujours au sens strict de propriétés privées donc toute initiative de nettoyage ou de sécurisation risque d’être qualifiée de violation de propriété (trespassing).

And you're talking about a situation where you physically cannot legally own this house. So then even as the county, I can't go and board it up without having some legal exposure. Groups have done that before: they boarded up houses that didn't belong to them, and then... The owner comes along, says: "Why did you board my house?" and they have no legal right to do so.

190

My neighbors directly across the street, so he's got his house and he's got a lot, and adjacent to them is a vacant lot and then there's a vacant home. And so it's so funny, his grass is beautiful like it's mowed and then next to it it's like the Jumanji forest! And so his wife is always yelling you know, she's like: "Just don't be lazy, just do it!" And he's like: "I'm not touching somebody else's property". It was so funny. I think she just finally got on his nerves enough, he got a few of his friends and they got out there, the collected tons of bottles and all types of stuff. And he kind of keeps that area now, just mowed and everything along with his own area. But you know people don't want to invest their time into it, it's not their property. Some people are actually afraid of getting in trouble for touching other peoples' property so...

Citation 66 – Shirley, Habitante de West Humboldt Park, Chicago

Dès lors, les riverains refusent d’entretenir le bien d’un autre et d’investir ainsi du temps et de l’argent dans une propriété sur laquelle ils n’ont aucun droit – et qu’ils risquent donc de se voir retirer. Un leader local me racontait par exemple les scrupules d’un propriétaire du quartier de Chicago Lawn à annexer la friche située le long du bâtiment qu’il venait de rénover :

This empty lot was a scene of dumping and all this kind of stuff. When we came out here we did a clean-up day on the block, we cleaned it all up and we actually even had some plants taken here and

stuff like that. But it was just sitting here. It's been on the MLS74 listing as for sale for probably

five years, maybe six. For 30 000 dollars. No one is ever going to buy this. And so I said to Juan*: "You own this building, take over the lot!" He says: "Well it's not my lot..." I said: "So what?

Nobody is ever gonna buy it for 30 000 dollars!" It's tax buyers75 you know, they're selling it. And

I said: "And by the way, if anybody ever comes and says 'what are you doing with my lot', you send them over to my office, because I've been looking for them for the last five years when people were dumping things and they weren't taking care of this lot!" I said: "Don't worry, nobody's coming."

Citation 67 – Entretien 16, Bureau NHS de Chicago Lawn/Gage Park, Chicago

Sous l’impulsion – et avec la protection – de ce représentant de NHS, le propriétaire a effectivement annexé la friche voisine en étendant sa clôture de façon à en barrer l’accès (Figure 47). Il n’a réalisé aucun autre aménagement pérenne mais cette barrière donne l’illusion d’une propriété privée et limite de ce fait les dégradations ou le dépôt d’ordures. Toutefois, la parcelle appartient en effet à un investisseurs extérieur76, elle est donc susceptible d’être vendue à un tiers ou mise aux enchères pour défaut de paiement des taxes. L’usage de la friche par les habitants du