The shelter for unhoused people could get a temporary extension of its lease, a spokesperson for Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says.
The shelter for unhoused people at the Guy Favreau complex in Chinatown could get a temporary extension of its lease, a spokesperson for Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said Wednesday.
The city is currently undertaking negotiations with the federal government to extend the lease of the shelter through the winter. “And we’re optimistic,” Catherine Cadotte told the Montreal Gazette.
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The shelter currently houses 65 people and is slated to close at the end of the month because of renovations expected to begin at the building, which is owned by the federal government. To plug the gap in services for those living on the street, the city announced last week that it was opening a new shelter to house 50 people in Verdun, in a former seniors residence that is expected to be converted into affordable housing units starting this summer. The Jardins Gordon, purchased by the city in September 2022, is located on Gordon St., near Champlain Blvd., a roughly 10-20 minute drive or 90-minute walk away from the Chinatown shelter. A shuttle bus run by the Old Brewery Mission and serving the city’s shelters is expected to take those in need to the Verdun shelter as well.
The city’s long-term plan is to turn the building into a space to provide affordable housing managed by the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal, with between 70 and 90 units available.
“We looked at the spaces we have, and we don’t have much,” Plante said. “One of the ideas that came out was Verdun, and there’s going to be a shuttle. We got the notice quite late about Guy Favreau, so this is a great place for the winter, because it was already a seniors’ residence, so it’s kinda ready for people.”
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Plante added there could be additional resources added to house those living on the street, and said the province has pledged to open up 200 additional spaces in order to make up for the increased number of people without homes in the most recent provincial survey.
“We’re still waiting for the province to approve other sites, to complete the number of beds necessary for Guy Favreau,” she said. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that people have a heated roof over their heads. But I’ll go back to the real solution, and it’s not shelters. It’s housing. The government of Quebec needs to invest in (social) housing.”
In an interview earlier this week, Verdun Mayor Marie-Andrée Mauger said she’s not sure that all those who use the shelter in Verdun will be people who currently use the shelter in Chinatown. However, she said this is the first such shelter in the Vderdun borough, and homelessness isn’t a uniquely downtown issue, so she expects the space to be used regularly.
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