• Winter 1985-86 : the Abej set up a day centre on board a bus run by volunteers in the Place des Buisses in Lille. It offers a duty social worker and medical consultations.
• During 1987, bungalows are converted into medical surgeries in the Place des Buisses.
• 1988 :
- Setting up of a workshop offering retraining for work aimed at homeless people.
- The Abej becomes an RMI administrator.
• 1989 :
The Abej Solidarités day centre moves to 20 Rue Ste Anne.
• 1991:
- September : setting up of an ergothrapy workshop reaching out onto the street. It caters to the needs of people seriously reduced to vagrancy.
- November : the Abej sets up a housing department. Its job is to:
* develop a new range of housing through means including a partnership with public landlords.
* provide people with social support in their access to housing.
• 1992 :
- January : the association's head office moves to the Bd de Metz.
- June : promiscuity between young people and older people on the fringes of society becomes difficult to manage in a single place and so the Abej decides to set up a day centre specifically open to young people aged under 25 years, the Point de Repère.
• 1994 :
- The ABEJ – an national association of which the ABEJ-Lille was then just a local committee, is transformed into a federation and the local committees become associations (law on decentralisation)
- July : opening of the Martin Luther King residential home, an operation aiming to rehouse people on the very fringes of society who have spent a long time living on the streets.
- The Housing department is grouped together with the head office in the Boulevard de Metz.
- The ABEJ-Lille is chosen as a "great cause" by the Chti
• 1995 :
- Setting up of the Jeunes et Partage workshop, which employs young people from the Point de Repère on CES (solidarity employment contracts) to allow them to reintegrate through work.
- As the day centres can no longer find emergency accommodation places, the Abej sets up a social hotel in a disused university hall of residence.
- The Point de Repère moves to the Place St Hubert.
• 1998 :
The Ergotherapy workshop moves to the Rue Pline, into the Martin Luther King residence.
• 1999 :
- Renovation of the Résidence Abej Accueil is completed in partnership with the OPAC DU NORD.
- The Résidence Abej Accueil allows the setting up of the Multiservices workshop, an integration workshop, and a social residence, semi-independent studio flats to develop the range of social housing for homeless people. The head office, the retraining workshop and the housing department are all grouped together in the Résidence Abej Accueil.
- Setting up of the Culture and Leisure initiative.
• 2000 :
- May: Official inauguration of the Résidence Abej Accueil.
- December: closing of the Ergotherapy workshop.
• 2001 :
- July : The Abej-Solidarités moves from the Rue Ste Anne to the Rue Solférino.
• 2002 :
- December 2001 to March 2002: opening of an emergency winter centre in St André.
- December 2002: publication of the first issue of "Etat d'Urgence".
• 2003 :
- June : Official inauguration of the new Abej-Solidarités premises.
• 2004 :
- December 2003 to March 2004: the Abej-Solidarités centre opens at night during periods when the weather is very cold. Up to 80 people were provided with overnight accommodation on the premises.
- The ABEJ-Lille launches the idea of overnight accommodation open all the year round to cater to the needs of those with nowhere to go at night.
- The ABEJ-Lille's medical activity is accredited as a Health Centre (which used to be known in French as a "dispensaire", although the meaning is the same).
• 2005 :
- December 2005, the prefecture offers the ABEJ-Lille empty premises in the administrative complex during the winter period.
• 2006 :
- The Point de Repère is accredited by the State as a CAARUD (Centre d'Accueil et d'Accompagnement à la Réduction des Risques pour les Usagers de Drogues).
- The ABEJ-Lille receives authorisation to open 10 short-stay health beds.
• 2007 :
- A surprise…
3 Translator’s note: I’ve assumed “donc” (therefore) to be a typo and have translated “don’t” (of which).
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