Where to set up homeless shelters?
Banning shelters for people experiencing homelessness near places frequented by children is unrealistic in Montreal, argues the community sector. Ontario recently enacted such a measure, but if applied here, it would leave little space available for these resources, according to an investigation by La Presse. As homelessness explodes and cohabitation becomes more complicated, where is the solution? A dossier by Isabelle Ducas and Jean-Hugues Roy
At a time when the need for homelessness is exploding, requiring supervised injection sites, shelters and day centres for the homeless to be set up at a safe distance from schools and daycares, as the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, is planning to do, is impossible in Montreal, according to the community sector.
"In central neighbourhoods with a high population density, there is almost no place that is more than 200 metres from a school or daycare," says Jérémie Lamarche, community organizer at the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seul et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM). "Community groups are already struggling to find space. It will be even more difficult for them to implement the necessary resources if we put these restrictions in place. This is not the time to put a spanner in the works. »
Marie-Andrée Painchaud-Mathieu, Coordinator of the Regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de Montréal
Imposing this rule would be tantamount to banning resources for the homeless in Montreal. It doesn't make sense.
Marie-Andrée Painchaud-Mathieu, Coordinator of the Regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de Montréal (RIOCM)
Minister Lionel Carmant mentioned the imposition of a minimum distance a few weeks ago, in the wake of the controversy over the installation of the Maison Benoît Labre 60 metres from an elementary school, next to a park, in the Saint-Henri district. The organization offers 35 supportive housing units to former homeless people, but the problem is its day centre, which serves about 200 meals a day, as well as its premises where hard drug use is possible.
The Maison Benoît Labre, in the Saint-Henri district
Parents and residents of the neighbourhood deplore the acts of incivility, indecency and violence that have multiplied since the opening of the centre nearly five months ago.
Other families in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood say they have been paying the price, for the past three years, for the installation of a shelter for the homeless in CAP Saint-Barnabé with nearly 200 places in a former YMCA next to a daycare centre.
Read our dossier on the subjectNo minimum distance has been specified for the moment by the minister, who is still studying the issue.
By way of comparison, the Cannabis Regulation Act specifies that the stores of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) must be located more than 250 metres from schools. And a few weeks ago, the Ontario government announced that it was now banning supervised injection sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares, a move that will result in the closure of five of Toronto's ten facilities.
As can be seen on the map above, if a radius of 200, 250 or 500 metres is imposed around schools and daycares where resources for people experiencing homelessness will not be able to set up, the available spaces will be very limited.
In the Plateau-Mont-Royal, for example, if we exclude places located less than 250 metres from a school or daycare, only 25% of the territory could be set up where a shelter or some other service for the homeless could be established. And these spaces are usually already occupied.
In Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie, 31% of the territory is far enough from schools and daycares, 35% in Montréal-Nord, 40% in Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension and 40% also in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
However, other central boroughs have more places away from schools and daycares, such as Ville-Marie and Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (60%) and Sud-Ouest (65%). It is in these areas that we currently find the largest number of resources for the homeless.
Exclusion zones?"Where are these people going to go? It's not by reducing services that we're going to solve the problem," says Carolyne Grimard, a professor at the University of Montreal's School of Social Work. "It's impractical. It's just going to add to the confusion and tension. We are still segregated, we want to relegate people to the margins. »
Carolyne Grimard, professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal
Are we going to create exclusion zones where we are going to tame these people?
Carolyne Grimard, professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal
According to Marie-Andrée Painchaud-Mathieu, of the RIOCM, there is no justification for imposing such a distance from schools and daycares. "There are sometimes acts of indecency [on the part of people experiencing homelessness], but they are not dangerous," she says.
She also reminds us that organizations that help people in need, even if they receive government funding, are autonomous. She finds it difficult to see how the government could ban certain sites from them.
"Community groups can decide where to locate their services," she says. Neither the government nor the cities are involved in the decision. They go where there is a building or land available, where they can settle with their meagre resources. If the government or the city want to provide us with buildings or places, we will be very happy. »
Industrial districtsCouldn't we open up resources outside residential areas, in industrial sectors, for example?
Jérémie Lamarche, community organizer at the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seul et itinérantes de Montréal
People will not travel to isolated places, where they have no reference points or a sense of belonging. We have to put resources where there are needs. If you put them elsewhere, it uproots people.
Jérémie Lamarche, community organizer at the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seul et itinérantes de Montréal
The danger of such a solution would be to end up with ghettos, like Skid Row in Los Angeles or Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, observes Carolyne Grimard.
"We still haven't learned to live with these people. We are still trying to remove them from the public space. Human misery is still being pushed back," she laments.
Homeless shelters need to be close to transportation services, grocery stores, health care, adds James Hughes, executive director of the Old Brewery Mission, which runs 15 homeless resources in Montreal, including four emergency shelters.
We want to re-affiliate people, accompany them towards housing, so they must be in neighbourhoods where they can live.
James Hughes, Executive Director of the Old Brewery Mission
However, he adds a nuance: the establishment of a "resource frequented by 1000 people per day, in a residential environment, 50 meters from a school, is probably not a good idea." For example, Café Mission, where the organization welcomes homeless people 24 hours a day in Old Montreal, along the Ville-Marie Expressway, would not fit into a residential neighbourhood, he says.
But transitional housing, where former homeless people move in and are supervised by workers, has its place in any neighbourhood, according to him.
However, the City of Montreal's plan to buy a former palliative care centre on Bois-de-Boulogne Street, in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which fell through last summer, was for transitional housing, not a shelter. He still provoked fierce opposition in the neighborhood, especially because he was near a daycare center.
"There has been a massive increase in homelessness over the past 18 months, it's not going in the right direction," insists James Hughes. We see more and more people in the streets, in the camps, in the hospitals. There are homeless people everywhere, so each neighborhood must do its part. This is not just a problem in the city centre. It takes courage in each neighborhood to welcome these people. »
"When people witness the reality of their fellow citizens, there is discomfort. It's confronting to see someone sleeping on the street, in a tent or a shelter, and there are reactions. But we need to address the causes of homelessness, not those who care for it. Tackle the housing crisis, the lack of access to health care and better fund support resources," concludes Jérémie Lamarche.
"In central neighbourhoods with a high population density, there is almost no place that is more than 200 metres from a school or daycare," says Jérémie Lamarche, community organizer at the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seul et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM). "Community groups are already struggling to find space. It will be even more difficult for them to implement the necessary resources if we put these restrictions in place. This is not the time to put a spanner in the works. »
Marie-Andrée Painchaud-Mathieu, Coordinator of the Regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de Montréal
Imposing this rule would be tantamount to banning resources for the homeless in Montreal. It doesn't make sense.
Marie-Andrée Painchaud-Mathieu, Coordinator of the Regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de Montréal (RIOCM)
Minister Lionel Carmant mentioned the imposition of a minimum distance a few weeks ago, in the wake of the controversy over the installation of the Maison Benoît Labre 60 metres from an elementary school, next to a park, in the Saint-Henri district. The organization offers 35 supportive housing units to former homeless people, but the problem is its day centre, which serves about 200 meals a day, as well as its premises where hard drug use is possible.
The Maison Benoît Labre, in the Saint-Henri district
Parents and residents of the neighbourhood deplore the acts of incivility, indecency and violence that have multiplied since the opening of the centre nearly five months ago.
Other families in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood say they have been paying the price, for the past three years, for the installation of a shelter for the homeless in CAP Saint-Barnabé with nearly 200 places in a former YMCA next to a daycare centre.
Read our dossier on the subjectNo minimum distance has been specified for the moment by the minister, who is still studying the issue.
By way of comparison, the Cannabis Regulation Act specifies that the stores of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) must be located more than 250 metres from schools. And a few weeks ago, the Ontario government announced that it was now banning supervised injection sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares, a move that will result in the closure of five of Toronto's ten facilities.
As can be seen on the map above, if a radius of 200, 250 or 500 metres is imposed around schools and daycares where resources for people experiencing homelessness will not be able to set up, the available spaces will be very limited.
In the Plateau-Mont-Royal, for example, if we exclude places located less than 250 metres from a school or daycare, only 25% of the territory could be set up where a shelter or some other service for the homeless could be established. And these spaces are usually already occupied.
In Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie, 31% of the territory is far enough from schools and daycares, 35% in Montréal-Nord, 40% in Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension and 40% also in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
However, other central boroughs have more places away from schools and daycares, such as Ville-Marie and Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (60%) and Sud-Ouest (65%). It is in these areas that we currently find the largest number of resources for the homeless.
Exclusion zones?"Where are these people going to go? It's not by reducing services that we're going to solve the problem," says Carolyne Grimard, a professor at the University of Montreal's School of Social Work. "It's impractical. It's just going to add to the confusion and tension. We are still segregated, we want to relegate people to the margins. »
Carolyne Grimard, professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal
Are we going to create exclusion zones where we are going to tame these people?
Carolyne Grimard, professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal
According to Marie-Andrée Painchaud-Mathieu, of the RIOCM, there is no justification for imposing such a distance from schools and daycares. "There are sometimes acts of indecency [on the part of people experiencing homelessness], but they are not dangerous," she says.
She also reminds us that organizations that help people in need, even if they receive government funding, are autonomous. She finds it difficult to see how the government could ban certain sites from them.
"Community groups can decide where to locate their services," she says. Neither the government nor the cities are involved in the decision. They go where there is a building or land available, where they can settle with their meagre resources. If the government or the city want to provide us with buildings or places, we will be very happy. »
Industrial districtsCouldn't we open up resources outside residential areas, in industrial sectors, for example?
Jérémie Lamarche, community organizer at the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seul et itinérantes de Montréal
People will not travel to isolated places, where they have no reference points or a sense of belonging. We have to put resources where there are needs. If you put them elsewhere, it uproots people.
Jérémie Lamarche, community organizer at the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seul et itinérantes de Montréal
The danger of such a solution would be to end up with ghettos, like Skid Row in Los Angeles or Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, observes Carolyne Grimard.
"We still haven't learned to live with these people. We are still trying to remove them from the public space. Human misery is still being pushed back," she laments.
Homeless shelters need to be close to transportation services, grocery stores, health care, adds James Hughes, executive director of the Old Brewery Mission, which runs 15 homeless resources in Montreal, including four emergency shelters.
We want to re-affiliate people, accompany them towards housing, so they must be in neighbourhoods where they can live.
James Hughes, Executive Director of the Old Brewery Mission
However, he adds a nuance: the establishment of a "resource frequented by 1000 people per day, in a residential environment, 50 meters from a school, is probably not a good idea." For example, Café Mission, where the organization welcomes homeless people 24 hours a day in Old Montreal, along the Ville-Marie Expressway, would not fit into a residential neighbourhood, he says.
But transitional housing, where former homeless people move in and are supervised by workers, has its place in any neighbourhood, according to him.
However, the City of Montreal's plan to buy a former palliative care centre on Bois-de-Boulogne Street, in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which fell through last summer, was for transitional housing, not a shelter. He still provoked fierce opposition in the neighborhood, especially because he was near a daycare center.
"There has been a massive increase in homelessness over the past 18 months, it's not going in the right direction," insists James Hughes. We see more and more people in the streets, in the camps, in the hospitals. There are homeless people everywhere, so each neighborhood must do its part. This is not just a problem in the city centre. It takes courage in each neighborhood to welcome these people. »
"When people witness the reality of their fellow citizens, there is discomfort. It's confronting to see someone sleeping on the street, in a tent or a shelter, and there are reactions. But we need to address the causes of homelessness, not those who care for it. Tackle the housing crisis, the lack of access to health care and better fund support resources," concludes Jérémie Lamarche.
