Public outcry after Montreal senior citizens allegedly evicted from residence with no notice

Many in Montreal are calling for the closure of a private seniors’ residence in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve after allegations of abuse.

Citizens and representatives of community, union and legal groups are denouncing the situation at Manoir Louisiane.

Seventy senior citizens lived in the seniors’ residence up until recently, but in the past several weeks each one has been evicted, forcing them to find a new place to live.

“We’re very outraged by the treatment that elder tenants, very vulnerable people have been receiving,” said Annie Lapalme, a community organizer with Entraide Logement Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

“We’re here today because one of the only affordable résidence privé pour aînés, RPA, so private elderly residence in the neighbourhood with 120 units, basically got emptied in a couple of months,” added Valérie Campanelli, a coordinator with La Table de quartier d’Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. “So unfortunately the legal framework allows for owners to shut down like this.”

Community groups allege these residents had current leases but were not given formal notice or financial compensation for moving, and their right to remain was violated.

“When an RPA, a residence for elders wants to close, the CIUSSS has to approve a relocalization plan, which they did, and it was supposed to close on July 2, 2025,” Lapalme explained. “But in the meantime, the landlord wanted to close as soon as possible, so she just harassed, put a lot of pressure on very vulnerable tenants to have them out as soon as possible.”

Added Campanelli: “We’re also here to kind of point out that the CIUSSS de l’Est, and as well as the municipality, both had serious responsibilities to protect the rights of the tenants here, and both of them, despite having been warned and told by community groups that there were serious issues here, both of them claimed they were not responsible, which is kind of absurd.”

In a written response to CityNews, the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal confirms that Manoir Louisiane did not comply with the regulations in force in the context of the cessation of activities and that their priority has been to ensure that these vulnerable residents have access to safe housing.

“Our establishment knows the residents of the RPA Manoir Louisiane very well,” CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal spokesperson Clara Meagher wrote. “The majority of them were already being followed by our home care and continue to be in their new home.

“We were present the day the closure was announced, and residents who wanted it received psychosocial support from that moment on. They were also assessed and our workers took charge of the relocation of all those who were eligible for public accommodation. Relocation assistance was also offered to all RPA residents.

“We reiterated to the residents, in writing in a communication last November, their right to remain on site once the RPA closed. If residents needed support to enforce their rights, we referred them to the appropriate resources. All residents were supported and no one was left behind.”

The groups denouncing the situation also allege the tenants lived in inhumane conditions that included a bed bug infestation that persisted for two years, and non-compliances in terms of fire safety.

“Horrible, dirty, no security, no doctors, no nurses in the evenings, no good things really,” said former resident Pierrette Cyr, who was evicted Jan. 8.

To address their concerns, the community groups are calling for several concrete actions that include pursuing the building’s owner for harassment and negligence; having the City of Montreal purchase the building for social housing or a public retirement home; and changing laws on retirement homes to protect residents from evictions.

“There’s definitely an issue here,” Campanelli said. “We’re creating this legal framework where there’s a void, where abusive landlords can act with impunity completely. So there needs to be reform at the legal, at the provincial level, absolutely. But we also think the municipality has a serious role to play here.”