59, 61, 63, 65, 67 rue d'Aubagne in 2017
No. 63, unoccupied, had belonged since 2016 to the mixed economy company Marseille Habitat; No. 65 was an inhabited condominium. The emergency services immediately demolished the adjacent building at No. 67, which was unoccupied and also weakened. The municipality, overwhelmed by the management of the tragedy, evacuated in the months following the accident at least 4 Marseillais living in 500 dangerous buildings, including a third near the accident. The management of the crisis drags on. A year after the accident, hundreds of households are still rehoused in hotels, the High Committee for Housing speaks of a humanitarian crisis. The drama reveals the dysfunctions of the services of the city and the metropolis, which had been alerted by experts on numerous occasions before the collapse, and the failing urban planning policy of the municipality of which Jean-Claude Gaudin was the mayor since 578. Six elected LRs are pinned for the rental or sale of unsanitary housing.
The site in 2021
The association a city center for all and November 5 collective denounce the policy of gentrification of the city center. The town hall defends itself by rejecting the responsibility for the accident on the heavy rains which preceded the accident, the administrative inertia and the private owners. A judicial investigation against X, for "involuntary homicides" aggravated "by manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of prudence or security" is entrusted three weeks after the tragedy to a pole of three investigating judges. In mid-June 2020, they received an expert report according to which the collapse was triggered by the breaking of a post supporting the floor of the ground floor of No. 65. Experts believe that the tragedy is the consequence of a large number of "major breaches", on the part of the municipality but also of several specialists informed of the state of the buildings since 2014. The indictments begin in November 2020 with that of Marseille Habitat (owner of no 63), Julien Ruas (close to Jean-Claude Gaudin and his assistant in charge of the risk management and prevention department), and the Liautard cabinet (co-ownership trustee in charge of no 65).
The investigation could last for many more years.
