Roaming | Imminent dismantling of part of the Notre-Dame Street encampment

Homeless people living in tents along Notre-Dame Street, in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, received an eviction notice last Friday which gives them until Thursday to vacate the premises, even though they say they do not have nowhere to go.

Mélanie Adam, who has been camping near Morgan Park since last March, explains, for example, that she was kicked out of a CAP Saint-Barnabé organization shelter and was unable to find space in another accommodation resource.

“Before, I was straight in the park and [les employés municipaux] asked me to move a little further away, telling me that I wouldn’t have to change places again,” she said Monday, adding that she had no intention of take down your tent, surrounded by a motley pile of objects.

No one offered her a solution or put her in contact with an organization that could help her, she says.

His neighbor, Pascal-Aurèle Lefebvre, is on a waiting list to join a shelter, because he does not want to spend the winter outside, but he does not know when his turn will come. “Every day I see new faces. People are arriving from everywhere with the cold,” he observes.

Nuisances

The land located between Notre-Dame Street and the adjacent cycle path belongs to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) of Quebec, which says it is obliged to dismantle part of the encampment after receiving notices of infringement from the the district of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, due to the nuisances observed in the area.

“We cite in particular the accumulation of material, the presence of flammable and dangerous materials, biological waste, drug trafficking and noise,” explains MTMD spokesperson Gilles Payer on the subject of municipal notices of non- compliance received on October 28.

But not all campers are affected by the eviction notice. We are targeting those located south of Morgan Park, like Mélanie Adam, those located at the corner of Bourbonnière Street as well as an area near Joliette and Aylwin Streets.

The MTMD is not able to specify how many tents, out of the thirty on the site, will have to be dismantled, but around ten people would be affected, according to the City of Montreal.

What support will be offered to affected homeless people? Will they be directed to resources that can accommodate them? “This goes beyond the mandate of the ministry,” replies the MTMD spokesperson. I can’t answer the question, but everyone knows. »

This situation greatly worries Julien Montreuil, director of the organization L’Anonyme, which works with the homeless. “We have always opposed dismantling as long as there were no solutions adapted to these people, but at the moment, there is no solution at all,” he laments.

1000 people per evening in the street

He estimates that around 1,000 people sleep every night in public spaces in Montreal, since there are not enough places in accommodation resources.

“It is clear that the City of Montreal has a policy of zero tolerance towards the camps and we fear that there will be other dismantlings as winter approaches,” denounces Mr. Montreuil, emphasizing that some will set up their tents in hidden places, where isolation risks harming their safety.

Au 1^is December, Montreal will have 2,102 emergency accommodation places, indicates the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which is responsible for managing provincial funds allocated to homeless aid organizations. An amount of 1.4 million has just been distributed for the addition of 118 places, it is specified.

However, there are nearly 5,000 homeless people in Montreal, according to the latest count of homeless people, conducted in 2023. The shelters in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve refuse around 60 people per night due to lack of space, according to the mayor of borough, Pierre Lessard-Blais.

Montreal requests support

For the advisor and head of homelessness on the executive committee, Robert Beaudry, it is up to the Legault government to act, and quickly.

“It was the Ministry of Transport which made the decision to carry out targeted dismantling. […] Our expectation is that there will be support, like us when we intervene, and not just to say: shut up,” he argued in the press scrum on Monday.

Mr. Beaudry refused to explain in what context offenses were reported by the borough to the MTMD. There have been complaints from residents, but the decision would rather stem from the presence on the site of criminals who take advantage of vulnerable people, he said.

In opposition, Councilor Benoit Langevin, is calling for a clear plan from the City for the future. “Where are we taking these people? Human rights have their place in all of this. Why do we not have a camp management policy to date like the majority of large American cities? “, he asked.

In 2023, the dismantling of a camp located on MTMD land, under the Ville-Marie highway, west of the city center, gave rise to a legal battle, lost on appeal by the homeless. But in this case, the eviction was justified by necessary maintenance work at this location.

A previous encampment along Notre-Dame Street, which had around sixty tents, was dismantled in December 2020 at the request of the Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM), after two tents burned.