Roaming: Port-Cartier in turn has a heat stop

As an extreme cold wave prepares to hit the North Shore, a heat stop opens its doors in Port-Cartier Monday evening.

In the Port-Cartier and Sept-Îles sector, wind chills could reach up to -44 overnight from Monday to Tuesday, according to Environment Canada.

From 8 p.m., people who need it will be able to find refuge in the new heat stop set up by a committee composed in particular of the Carrefour Jeunesse emploi Duplessis and the City of Port-Cartier.

The heated trailer located on Patterson Island will have operations and resources similar to that of Sept-Îles, inaugurated last week.

The ten-bed mixed dormitory will be accessible every day between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. until 1^is May, specifies the general director of the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi de Duplessis, Nadia Richard. A security agent will be on site at all times and a worker will be responsible for opening and closing the service on a daily basis, she adds.

The annual operating costs of the new resource are estimated between $100,000 and $150,000, reports Ms. Richard.

Like the one in Sept-Îles, the trailer is equipped to accommodate the pets of people who arrive.

When the heat stop closes, male users will be able to have lunch, take a shower and wash their clothes for free in the Hom’asculin premises, a few minutes away, adds the director of the organization, Manon Lacasse.

According to the local community, six or seven people are currently experiencing homelessness in Port-Cartier, a phenomenon that is getting worse, according to Nadia Richard.

This is an even greater issue in Port-Cartier because we do not have a permanent housing resource for homelessness.she recalls.

We will not hide, there is also a lot of homelessness [cachée]where we sleep in our car, with a friend or another. […] We think our beds will be useful.

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The heat stop is a start, according to the mayor of Port-Cartier, Alain Thibault, who agrees that the resources are too few. For now, we absolutely had to turn around and put this in placehe maintains.

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The completion of the project was not without pitfalls. In addition to insurance and fire safety requirements, finding the location that would accommodate the trailer was not easy, he says.

“Yes, but not in my backyard”, we hearhe laments. We analyzed various places and we believed [que l’île Patterson] could be the place that would have social acceptability.

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On social networks, Internet users criticized the choice of Patterson Island, judging the location too remote, says Mr. Thibault. However, placing the resource in a residential or more busy area would have attracted even more criticism, the mayor believes.

If necessary, the committee will readjust the approach next year, he adds.

With information from Alban Normandin.