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montreal wants day services moved from st-henri shelter before school year starts
the city says it intends to help the province find a "more suitable" location for the services offered by the maison benoît labre.
aug 20 2024
3 minute read
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facing rising concerns from residents, the city of montreal and provincial authorities are working to relocate the day services offered to unhoused people at the maison benoît labre before the new school year.
at a city council meeting on monday, sud-ouest borough mayor benoit dorais said he has asked quebec social services minister lionel carmant about moving the services at the st-henri shelter as soon as possible.
“what i asked minister carmant is to move the services associated with the day centre … to another location that would be more suitable,” dorais told a resident who raised concerns about the issue.
in an email response on tuesday, a spokesperson for carmant’s office confirmed he is in favour of relocating the services given the tensions that remain in the neighbourhood.
“however, we expect the city to propose several alternative sites to avoid a concentration of services,” wrote andréanne lajoie.
maison benoît labre is a safe drug consumption site and transition housing centre in st-henri located next to an elementary school.
in addition to 36 studio apartments for people who are transitioning out of homelessness, it also hosts a drop-in day centre that offers meals, showers and other services to those in need.
the centre faced opposition from residents before reopening in its new location in april and has been the subject of complaints since. neighbours have voiced concerns over an increase in visible drug use and erratic behaviour so close to a school .
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the city’s request this week only concerns the day centre services offered, not the apartments or the safe drug consumption services. the city did not return a request for comment about its request on tuesday.
in an interview on the radio station 98.5 fm , dorais explained that public health data show only six or eight people use the safe injection site, whereas the day centre serves up to 1,000 meals a day, attracting many more people to the area.
during the council meeting, dorais said the city has put several measures in place to try to attenuate concerns in the area, including a cleanliness brigade to pick up needles and a team dedicated to cohabitation.
“all these measures should have worked, but having said that, unfortunately there’s a lot of incivility, and social cohabitation is much more difficult,” dorais said.
dorais said the city plans to help the province find a new location as quickly as possible given the looming school year.
in a statement published tuesday morning, the centre said it has been helping the neighbourhood’s most vulnerable residents for 75 years, “providing services that are essential in a context where homelessness and mental health needs are being felt in many large cities.”
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the centre said it has implemented several measures in recent months to “limit the effects on the neighbourhood” in collaboration with municipal and provincial health departments, as well as the montreal police.
“we continue to ask for the full co-operation of all our partners, including the city of montreal, so that we can continue to provide essential, life-saving services,” it added.
marie-andrée painchaud mathieu, the coordinator of the regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de montréal, an organization that brings together more than 350 community groups, said all levels of government have a role to play in addressing the challenge of homelessness, but that it doesn’t seem politicians are interested in collaborating, including carmant, the municipal administration of projet montréal, and federal conservative party leader pierre poilievre (who last month referred to the maison benoît labre as a “ drug den “).
“they’ve made maison benoît labre a tool in their sad political games. with their statements, they foster prejudice against people who are already marginalized, going as far as to put their lives in danger,” painchaud mathieu said in a statement.
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she also questioned what legal grounds the government would have to force an independent organization, which owns the building it occupies, to move.
“in the absence of adequate facilities that meet their criteria of acceptability (acceptable for whom?), we invite politicians to put their egos aside and fight with us against poverty, rather than against poor people,” she said.
jacob serebrin of the gazette contributed to this report.
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