In La Rochelle, the housing crisis also applies to cemeteries

The ossuary at the Saint-Éloi cemetery is reaching capacity. It is expected to be expanded in the coming years. The Rossignolette ossuary could be reopened in the meantime.

Faced with a housing shortage, we'll have to build. In La Rochelle, this mantra applies to the living, as well as the dead. With its five cemeteries (Saint-Éloi being the largest by far, followed by Rossignolette, Mireuil, Laleu, and Saint-Maurice), the city has 27,000 spaces for the deceased (for burials as well as in columbariums). "But by 2030, we must prepare to welcome more deceased into our cemeteries due to demographic changes and the disappearance of the baby boomer generation," assures Emmanuel Pavy, director of green spaces, urban cleanliness, and cemeteries in La Rochelle.

And for that, space must be made. This means moving the bodies of the deceased whose concessions have expired (after 15, 30, or 50 years) to place their bones in the Saint-Éloi ossuary. The same goes for the funerary urns initially placed in the columbariums, which are moved to the ossuary once the concession expires. "But we always try to find the descendants to ask them if they want to renew the concession beforehand, of course," says Chantal Vetter, the municipal councilor in charge of cemeteries. "And if we don't find anyone, we put a sign on the concession two years before it expires."

But even when the concessions aren't renewed, a problem arises in La Rochelle: the Saint-Éloi ossuary, the only one still operating in the city, is reaching saturation point. Built around a hundred years ago, it's now impossible to know how many deceased are buried there. "But a new ossuary is the way to go," assures Chantal Vetter. "Or more precisely, an expansion of the existing ossuary by doubling its surface area, which is currently around 1,200 m³. The previous one allowed us to last around a hundred years, so that would give us time to see what happens," adds Emmanuel Pavy.

In terms of the timetable, the expansion of the ossuary is not planned for the immediate future. "Studies are scheduled to begin next year. We can expect the work to take approximately three to five years to complete," explains Chantal Vetter. In the meantime, an interim solution could be found.

"In the Rossignolette cemetery, we have an existing ossuary, but it hasn't been used for years because it hasn't been adapted, particularly in terms of safety for the teams working there. We will carry out the necessary renovations to be able to use it again within one to two years, which will allow us to manage the interim period before the other ossuary is delivered," adds the elected official.

A solution that will therefore only be temporary. "At 50 m³, its size is absolutely not suited to our long-term needs," Emmanuel Pavy insists. In La Rochelle, the housing crisis is clearly sparing no one, not even the dead.