Montreal turns vacant facility into 40-space warming shelter in Saint-Laurent

The City of Montreal has added a 40-space warming shelter in Saint-Laurent by converting a vacant facility once used on a construction site.

The city says the new warming space on Marcel-Laurin Boulevard will remain open until March 31.

The facility was once used on a now-completed Société de transport de Montréal (STM) construction site.

City officials say the space was needed as dozens of the city’s most vulnerable are refused entry to emergency shelter resources that are “full every night” in Montreal.

The temporary warming shelter will be operated by a security service “specialized in issues involving people experiencing homelessness,” according to the city. Social workers will be on site.

“Note that particular attention will also be paid to maintaining the cleanliness of the premises and its surroundings,” the city said.

The mayor of Montreal says the city is acting where the Government of Quebec is failing.

“We’re doing the job that the Government of Quebec is not doing,” Mayor Valérie Plante said. “We feel like we had to do it in a rush, but we really felt like it was one way. It doesn’t solve the bigger problem, the deeper problem of homelessness. But at least we can bring people here where there’s gonna be warm, there’s gonna be people with them.

“So it’s really something to fill a huge gap that the government is not filling right now.”

Plante says Montrealers should not be footing the bill for provincial services.

“I want Quebecers to understand that a lot of people from other regions, from other cities, come to Montreal for services because there’s a network, because there’s a lot for them,” the mayor said. “And it’s OK, we’re not gonna tell someone, ‘hey, you’re from Joliette, go home.’ We’re not gonna do that. But at the same time, it’s not normal that it is the Montrealers, taxpayers, that pays for our responsibility and that people from elsewhere come to Montreal for that.

“We want the premier to understand that shelters are full every night. And just like he would be doing in other regions, and he’s shown us that he’s capable of just finding solutions to support the most vulnerable, Montrealers wants to feel the same way.”

Plante says as the “economic leader in Quebec,” Montreal needs to feel safe in order to thrive.

“We want people to have a roof on top of their head,” she said. “We want business owners to feel like they don’t have to push somebody that is sleeping in front of their porch in the morning. I’m sure everybody wants that, but where is the empathy? Where is the plan we’ve been asking for?”

Aref Salem, the leader of the municipal Opposition, is asking why it took until the end of January to open the Saint-Laurent warming centre.

“The mayor, she decided and presumably they decided to react last week of December,” Salem said. “And a month later coming here, while we could have prepared the land, prepared the plan, prepared the place ahead of the time. We could have prepared this in June and July and being ready here to accept people and in the situation of homelessness in this place probably beginning of October, beginning of November, and not now at the end of the winter.

“Unfortunately, this administration, the mayor, Projet Montréal, they don’t know how to manage it. They don’t know how to take care of a problem and that’s what we’re seeing.”

The city also announced it was increasing capacity at the Lucien-Saulnier warming shelter – from 30 to 50 people. The city opened that space – in an Old Montreal building that recently was the workplace of municipal officials – in December.