The tightly woven net of Val-d’Or

In May 2023, the mayor of Val-d’Or, Céline Brindamour, launched an appeal for help to the Legault government. Cohabitation with the itinerant population had become critical in the small town of around 32,000 inhabitants. The solution: stop working in silos.

More than a year later, representatives of different organizations in this Abitibi-Témiscamingue community came to explain how they managed to get through the crisis that made the headlines in major media across the province.

The key: seat everyone around the same table.

It seems simple, but it isn’t always.

Especially since Val-d’Or has a particularity that other Quebec cities do not have: a strong representation of itinerant people from neighboring indigenous communities.

Since 2017, the region has had a mixed police force, the Val-d’Or Indigenous Mixed Community Police Station (PPCMA). The mixed intervention team – police officers and community workers (EMIPIC) is also one of those who have taken the problem of homelessness head on. “I tell my police officers: here you will work differently,” says Julie Bouvier, PPCMA station manager.

“During the summer that followed the mayor’s cry from the heart, several small things were put in place,” explains Paul-Antoine Martel, liaison officer and community relations at the City of Val-d’Or.

It was also necessary to tackle prejudices against the itinerant population. The community organization La Piaule purchased La Sandwicherie, which was transformed into a social integration organization. Thanks to the “Alternative paid daily work” (TAPAJ) program, around a hundred people were able to work. “The comments on the City’s Facebook page are all positive,” observes Paul-Antoine Martel. This program helped change the community’s outlook on people experiencing homelessness. »

However, the program is expensive and is not yet recognized by the Ministry.

“The situation has improved”

Like many Quebec cities, Val-d’Or is struggling with the phenomenon of encampments. And it’s not for lack of places at La Piaule, but by choice. Some people choose marginality.

That said, the Val-d’Or stakeholders do not see this choice as inevitable. “We supported a gentleman who had been homeless for 25 years,” says Antoine St-Germain, specialist in clinical activities in homelessness at the CISSS de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Everyone said to themselves: he would never be able to live in an apartment. However, he has been living at the Château de Marie-Ève ​​– an accommodation project accompanied by services and managed by La Piaule – for a year. »

We know that miracles do not exist. If the Val-d’Or model gives good results, it is because people agreed to do things differently.

Like the doctors and psychiatrists who agree to work “on the street” and meet itinerant clients. “A psychiatrist already told me that it would never be possible and yet, we did it,” observes Antoine St-Germain.

Today, the street clinic makes it possible to offer services to people who would not normally ask for them. The secret: patience.

Val-d’Or’s approach is based on teamwork, constant communication and stakeholders focused on the needs of the field that they follow very closely. “Our meshes are woven very tightly,” emphasizes Paul-Antoine Martel. We took a step forward and today we can say that the situation has improved. »

Val-d’Or’s approach has been adopted by other cities in the region, and even Montreal has been inspired by this open-plan way of working.

“When the crisis broke out, we thought that Val-d’Or was a unique case,” notes Christine Francoeur, executive advisor on homelessness at the CISSS de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue. It just happened two weeks before the rest of Quebec. »