Hundreds rally urging the city to address social issues in the Village

Hundreds of Montrealers are rallying at Parc de l’Espoir, urging the city to address social issues such as homelessness and addiction in the Village, citing that for several years they have seen the neighbourhood decline and now they’ve had enough.

“We want the government to stop ignoring the problem because it’s been about 25 years, that it’s almost like the Village has been red zoned,” said Kat Coric, co-organizer of the rally.

“Well there’s a lot of people on the street that are in distress. They are suffering from different illnesses, mental illness, drug addiction. There’s a lack of social housing, there’s a lack of community help for these people, there’s violence and we want to try to get our elected officials to try to help.”

#WATCH: Montrealers are rallying at Parc de l’Espoir, urging the city to address social issues in the Village, saying that for several years they have seen the neighbourhood decline and now they’ve had enough. @swiddarassy has more.https://t.co/Xzwk9zJzPQ pic.twitter.com/FtWzFEOHP0

— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) July 4, 2023

Last month, the city of Montreal announced an action plan to reinvigorate the Village by making it a cleaner, greener, and more pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood. However, demonstrators say that plan is not enough to address the neighbourhood’s core issues and make residents feel safe.

“People are getting their food stolen from their plates on the terraces and people on the streets are in distress and we have to remember these are people, these are human beings, they have feelings. These are somebody’s kids, daughters, brothers, sisters, they need help.”

On Monday, a man in his forties was taken to hospital after a car partially ran over his body in the Village neighbourhood. Coric says the Village is in a crisis and in order to fix the issue, more funding needs to go towards community-focused organizations.

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“There are community actions groups that are in place in the Village like Roseaux for example, but Roseaux in order to feed the demand there needs to be 25 more companies like Roseaux,” said Coric.

Some residents that CityNews spoke to said they think there should be more authority in the Village.

“Maybe a few more police walking by. Just feeling the presence of somebody that actually cares and making sure that there is less criminality,” said one Montrealer.

“There’s other ways of thinking of security. Prevention is a good one. We need to think of more social housing, there’s a lot of new development coming in the sector. If people can’t afford to live in the sector then there will be more people on the streets.”