Verdun homeless shelter closes with no plans to replace it

A temporary shelter in Verdun has closed with no plans to replace it.

The space that housed 50 people will soon be converted into affordable housing.

Jardins Gordon in the Verdun borough opened as a temporary shelter this past December to replace the emergency centre at the Complexe Guy-Favreau, which closed its doors last fall.

“Every time people need to move, they need to change their community, they need to change their services, their habits, so it can create stress, not in a good way, unfortunately,” said Old Brewery Mission Communications Director Marie-Pier Therrien. “It’s definitely adding pressure on the existing facilities. It’s creating more people that are outside, that are trying to find housing in the end also, but hopefully this is a relocation process.”

A homeless shelter that was supposed to be set up in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal in early August that would have provided space for the 50 people that were housed at Jardins Gordon will ultimately not see the light of day.

The owner of the building where the shelter was to be set up has announced he no longer wants to sell his property to the city due to the project’s lack of social acceptability.

However, some Verdun residents say they’re relieved by the closure due to cohabitation issues.

“People were yelling all over the place, coming in our backyard,” said Gontran Latour who lives nearby. “The kids were kept in the house so that they couldn’t interact with those people and right now, we feel more confident. Now, it’s the end and we appreciate the situation, the quiet situation.” 

Ahuntsic-Cartierville residents didn’t want the shelter in their neighbourhood

The city believed it had found a new location to accommodate the homeless population in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. However, the owner of the building, a former palliative care centre, decided not to sell it to the city due to opposition from the borough’s residents who organised petitions and held gatherings to express their opposition to the project.

Protesters denounced the city’s lack of transparency and its decision to open a shelter near several daycares and schools. They feared that their children will be exposed to unsightly scenes involving people under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They also deplored not having been consulted in advance.

Nearly 30 residents have been relocated, but 11 remain without accommodation, while 30 workers at the Verdun shelter who were supposed to transfer to Ahuntsic have now also lost their jobs.

The Old Brewery Mission has also been trying to accommodate the homeless population displaced by the closure of the Verdun shelter.

“So far, we’ve welcomed at least one person in our emergency housing facilities, but we’ve also been helping with our shuttle services to move people from Verdun to other possible locations. So, it’s about finding spaces in an environment that is already at full capacity,” said Therrien.

In a written response to CityNews, Montreal City councillor and executive committee member responsible for homelessness Robert Beaudry said the organization responsible for managing the Verdun homeless shelter has already confirmed that more than half of the occupants have been relocated to different resources, and the work ongoing within the community network.

Additionally, the city of Montreal announced it wants to launch a public consultation on the issue of homelessness in the city. By involving the population in the discussion, it hopes to see new solutions emerge to better manage the crisis.

Since March, a committee of experts has been looking into the issue and the needs of people who do not have access to housing. Its report is expected next October.

Ensemble Montréal says people are being pushed on the street

Official opposition leader Aref Salem said the actions from the Plante administration are inhumane.

“You know, we knew a long time ago that the shelter was closed by August 1st. All they did, it’s just try to open one shelter in Ahuntsic,” noted Salem. “And at the end of the day it didn’t work. So today, what they did, what they did, basically, they pushed literally the people out on the street.”