Roberval | Looking for affordable space for a soup kitchen

(Roberval) Faced with an increase in food insecurity, the City of Roberval is working to relaunch a soup kitchen. But the municipality faces an obstacle: it cannot find affordable premises to house the project.

“We will not rent a commercial space for $2,000 per month to serve soup for two hours, three lunchtimes per week,” laments the mayor of Roberval, Serge Bergeron, met in his offices in mid-December.

It has been a long time since the municipality of Lac-Saint-Jean has offered a soup kitchen to the most disadvantaged. But in recent years, the need for a return of this service has become apparent.

With the rising cost of living, the population is having more and more difficulty making ends meet, observes the mayor.

To combat food insecurity, the City of Roberval wants to offer one meal a day, three times a week to start. “It could extend to five days a week,” specifies the mayor.

Everything is in place to launch the service. The municipality, which managed to find subsidies, even hoped to start it last fall.

But the project is currently blocked. “We can’t find any premises,” summarizes Serge Bergeron.

This is because the City is also paying the price for the housing crisis. In Roberval, the vacancy rate is anemic: it stood at 0% in 2022, according to the latest figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Glimmer of hope: the mayor was to meet the owner of a potential premises shortly after his interview with The Press.

Cohabitation challenges

In recent years, the City of Roberval has faced an increase in homelessness on its territory. So much so that a year ago she opened a shelter for the homeless, not far from the city center.

The image is striking: until last winter, the municipality had never needed such a resource. Today, it is overflowing.

“We have 12 beds and we sometimes have to organize ourselves to accommodate 15 people,” illustrates Serge Bergeron.

A shelter for the homeless had also opened its doors in Alma, and another will soon open in the same region, in Dolbeau-Mistassini.

“We didn’t have that before in our small towns,” emphasizes Mr. Bergeron.

During its last census, the City of Roberval counted 26 people experiencing homelessness. And she expects their numbers to increase again this year.

The arrival of homelessness brings challenges to cohabitation, confides the mayor, citing the appearance of makeshift camps and mayhem. Citizens call him to tell him that they are afraid to walk outside at night.

The mayor is sensitive to the feeling of insecurity, although he strives to fight against stigma.

“Intoxicated people in the street screaming, that scares people. Our population is older, they have never seen that,” explains the mayor, who had set up a crisis unit on homelessness in 2022.

Two years later, its various members still meet regularly.

Essential services

The increase in poverty and food insecurity goes hand in hand with the phenomenon of homelessness observed in small towns, believes Serge Bergeron.

“It would be a government error not to tackle it, and not to tackle it fiercely even,” said the elected official, who deplores the fact that it is necessary to “disturb the State” to obtain subsidies for services. social yet essential.

“I understand that everyone is asking for more money. But behind these major problems, which are on the rise, there are humans. »