Where will people experiencing homelessness in Gatineau go?

Gatineau elected officials must choose between two options to relocate people experiencing homelessness living near the Robert-Guertin Center.

The municipal administration is offering to redevelop the current site or move the campers to municipal land on Hanson Street.

The probable contamination of the Hanson Street site makes some councilors hesitate about this option, notably the mayor of Gatineau, Daniel Champagne.

Under the conditions that were initially established, the Hanson site was the site that met these conditions. [Par contre], it is probably a site which is largely contaminated. So, we have to do the analyzes to see if we can adjust on thishe explained in a press scrum on Tuesday.

Homeless people may therefore have to move to the Robert-Guertin Center site in a demarcated space which is not affected by the deconstruction work at the Robert-Guertin Center.

Regardless of the choice of the future location of the camp, we need to reorganize the Guertin sitebelieves the director of the Gatineau Recreation, Sports and Community Development Department, Sébastien Vallée.

The objective is to come and say where the zones of tolerance arehe explains.

Camp cleaning planned for May 7

The City plans to clean up the camp on May 7, or in the event of rain, on May 9.

Municipal elected officials also made reference, on Tuesday, to the waste found in the camp.

[…] We give an inch and we’ll take a foot”,”text”:”Pull up, you’re not on your ground. We allow you to be there, it’s okay, we tolerate it.[…] We give an inch and we’ll take a foot”}}”>Get over it, you’re not on your territory. We allow you to be there, it’s okay, we tolerate it. […] We give an inch and we’ll take a footlaunched the municipal councilor of the Masson-Angers district, Mario Aubé.

He added that partners and people experiencing homelessness should be involved in revamping the site.

Hull-Wright district municipal councilor Steve Moran believes the situation is more complex.

It’s very easy to say “get over it.” As we have said, these are people who have difficulty coping with mental health and substance abuse needs. Things that we see as trash, they belong to people so we have to go about it with tacthe argued.

Devcore wants to continue helping

Real estate developer Devcore plans to remove heated tents from people experiencing homelessness near the Robert-Guertin Center on May 15.

It’s clear that we’re not ready to let people go and say goodbye.

The company would like to continue its involvement by building tiny houses in containers at another location.

It is certain that, for us, the idea of ​​putting summer tents on an asphalted area is not the best option.believes the director of humanitarian projects at Devcore, Nancy Martineau.

The company would like to offer furnished, insulated, air-conditioned containers, which allow people to have a certain quality of life, and also sanitary blocks, a space for cookingexplained Ms. Martineau.

The latter wants the City to find other land to enable this project to be carried out.

[…] We had different financial partners who supported the project, but for the future we cannot continue to invest in a project that we do not know where it is going”,”text”:”If we want to continue , it will take support. At the moment, it is the private sector that paid for the project.[…] We had different financial partners who supported the project, but for the future we cannot continue to invest in a project that we do not know where it is going”}}”>If we want to continue, it will take support. At the moment, it is the private sector that paid for the project. […] We had different financial partners who supported the project, but for the future we cannot continue to invest in a project that we do not know where it is going.she believes.

The coordinator of the Regional Collective to Fight Homelessness in Outaouais (CRIO), Alexandre Gallant, also believes that it would be preferable to consider other location options.

We will have even more people to put on a smaller site. At some point, we will have to find other options, because the pressure increaseshe said Tuesday.

The partners will have the opportunity to discuss the future of the camp during a shoulder lake Thursday, maintains Nancy Martineau.

With information from Patrick Foucault