Montreal mayor touts homelessness progress with 532 warming shelters spaces, 2 trailers

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said that her administration has exceeded the goal of creating 500 new places in warming shelters before Christmas.

In a press release, the City said that it has confirmed 400 places in collaboration with CIUSSS Centre-Sud and other community organizations.

“If these, 279 spaces are now funded, while the administration is currently finalizing the details for an additional 116 spaces,” the press release reads.

This addition comes on top of the 135 spaces in Downtown YMCA, the administration had previously announced, bringing the new spaces to over 530 for a total of more than 3,000 warming shelter spaces in the city.

“Right now, we have to address the issue of the winter, being responding to the needs in some areas where we’re more concentrated,” Martinez Ferrada said at a press conference Thursday.

Warming shelters are also planned for early next year to serve those living in the encampment on Notre Dame Street near Viau Street. Two trailers that can host about 10 people each are expected to be installed close to the encampment.

“What we’re looking for is how do we better plan those spaces, smaller spaces in the city in order to give better support in terms of community organizations, but also in terms of how do we manage the cohabitation in our neighborhoods,” Martinez Ferrada explained.

In February, the City said it plans to release a new camping protocol with guidelines on encampments after consultation borough mayors.

Julien Montreuil, director general of the community organization L’Anonyme, who is working with the City on the project, said that the exact locations of the trailers were not decided.

“There will be two trailers there within the existing encampments,” Montreuil explained. “The main objective is to prevent people from dying this winter.”

The mayor said that the cross-department crisis unit set up by her administration to combat homelessness will be working through the holidays.

“The goal is to ensure that issues are addressed and decisions are made quickly so that adjustments can be made on an ongoing basis in line with the reality on the ground,” the press release said.

Even as the mayor touted her progress, Leader of the Official Opposition Ericka Alneus demanded more transparency about the administration’s claims.

“We’re talking about 532 places. How many of them are new? Some were there last year. Some of them, when are they coming from and where are they coming from?” Alneus said.

She also raised concerns about 135 spaces in YMCA reportedly closing by Jan. 18.

“Winter doesn’t finish in January 18. What will happen about those people? Where are they going to go?”

The administration also addressed the death of the man in his 30s last Sunday after his tent caught fire in Montreal’s Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough last Sunday.

“The person was isolating himself and wasn’t in a place where a citizen would see the person,” said City Councillor Benoit Langevin.

“This is like next level marginalization of somebody who really doesn’t want to be bothered and is going, being excluded. But why is that person in that scenario and who is he in contact with?” said Langevin, adding that different solutions were needed to address diverse needs of people experiencing homelessness.

“In the coming weeks and months, we must maintain a genuine war effort, a collective commitment, and relentless determination,” said Claude Pinard, president of the executive committee and member responsible for the homelessness file.

The City is looking to add more places and is asking anyone with spaces available to contact the administration via e-mail: offredesites@montreal.ca.