The first shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Ahuntsic-Cartierville will open its doors in mid-August, raising fears in a CPE and a religious community located nearby.
The Bois-de-Boulogne Center will be located on the avenue of the same name, near the intersection with rue Dudemaine, “and will be able to accommodate up to 50 people experiencing homelessness,” indicated the City of Montreal. City Hall approved the purchase of a building until recently occupied by a hospice home.
Robert Beaudry, the elected official responsible for homelessness on the executive committee, indicated that this opening demonstrated that the problem no longer only affects the city center and adjacent sectors.
“Homelessness is not decreasing, we can see that,” he said in a telephone interview. “Groups need infrastructure to provide services to this population to prevent them from becoming entrenched in the streets. » It is the Social Development Society (SDS) which will operate the center, open 24 hours a day, with funding from the health network.
But the upcoming opening of the site is causing concern in the neighborhood. The CPE Château de Grand-Mère welcomes children about a hundred meters from the future refuge.
“It raises a lot of concerns and concerns for the children who are going to be exposed to it. It’s really close,” said Michel Desrosiers, general director of the establishment. “We recognize the significant problem of homelessness, but the fact that decision-makers do not take into account location when implementing these resources seems to me to be a significant failure. »
He worries that children will witness “all kinds of high-intensity situations that undermine emotional security.”
Its neighbors are the Franciscan Oblates of Saint-Joseph. “I am angry,” declared Sister Pierrette Bertrand, leader of the congregation dedicated to caring for indigent women.
“In our neighborhood, there are no homeless people. It’s a neighborhood of poverty, because it’s a large majority of immigrants who arrive and often undocumented immigrants. Are we going to add to that homeless people who come from elsewhere?” she said.
Mr. Desrosiers and Sister Pierrette Bertrand also object to the lack of neighborhood consultation on the part of the City of Montreal. They received a notice announcing an “information session in advance of the opening”, which will take place virtually only.
“It’s not democratic at all, to say the least. [The city is saying]: ‘This is what’s going to happen and this is what you’re going to experience,'” the nun lamented.
Robert Beaudry argued that the City of Montreal never consults for projects like this.
“It’s a bit like social housing. When we do a social housing project, we don’t do a public consultation,” said the elected official. “However, it’s important to hear and listen to the population. It’s an information session, but it will also be an exchange with the population. There will also be a visit to the premises, an open house before the opening.”
