Montreal residents feel unsafe going to the Village: survey

A new survey revealed that most people don’t feel safe in Montreal’s Village and that the situation has only gotten worse.

The poll was conducted by the Citizens Association of the Village of Montreal and received answers from 718 respondents that were reached by social media, the mail, and door-to-door flyers.

The results showed that 68.2 per cent believe that village is not very safe, and 66.5 per cent said that the quality of life in the area was poor or very poor.

“It’s important to understand that the purpose of this survey is not to say that the Village is dangerous and that it’s not a good place to live,” said association president Sylvain Côté in a statement. “On the contrary, we believe that by looking at the issues head-on, we’ll be able to identify the main issues that create this widespread feeling of insecurity, and the actions that need to be prioritized.

In addition, 66 per cent of respondents said that they avoid certain areas in the Village for safety reasons.

Some of the areas include the Beaudry Metro station (72.8 per cent), Place Émilie-Gamelin (65.6 per cent), Place du Village (50.1 per cent), Place Emmett-Johns (48.7 per cent), Charles-S. Campbell (41.5 per cent), and des Faubourgs (20.5 per cent).

Other streets that people said they felt unsafe were on Sainte-Catherine and Ontario Street.

However, the stretch between Sainte-Catherine Street between Berri and Atateken received the most votes as the most unsafe area in the Village (77.2 per cent), followed by the area between Alexandre-de-Séve and Papineau Street at 49 per cent.

According to the survey, the presence of community workers and officers made people feel safer, but 15 to 23 per cent of respondents said the interventions had little to impact.

“Our meetings with the Village’s population have shown that hard drug use is accompanied by the presence of vendors, street gangs, etc,” said Alain Hébert, head of the security committee of the citizens association. “This leads us to believe that these factors account for a significant proportion of the population’s perception of safety.”

The association also asked people for suggestions to improve not only the quality of life, but the safety issues in the area. 606 people responded with additional feedback on how to remedy the situation.

“A strong message emerged, and the various levels of government need to work together quickly the situation, which has reached a critical threshold in the Village,” said Côté.

Profile of respondents

Those who participated in the survey were aged 18 to 79 years old and live in the Village.

68.4 per cent were men, 25.9 per cent were women, 3.1 per cent identified as non-binary and 2.6 per cent preferred not to answer.