La Maison Annagiarvik opens for Indigenous people in Montreal’s Milton-Parc

Nestled on Ste. Famille Street in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough’s Milton-Parc area is a monumental house that will soon become home to 14 Indigenous people.

La Maison Annagiarvik is a transitional housing project offered to people who are actively working on becoming sober.

They will be able to stay for a maximum of five years, the duration of the lease.

The Projets Autochtones du Québec (PAQ) initiative stems from what the organization’s marketing and fundraising manager Sarah Clark calls “a massive need” in the area.

“Just last year we finished writing our annual report. We served just under 1,000 Indigenous people in the urban centre of Montreal and those numbers are growing. There was a 12 per cent increase over last year,” Clark said.

In a report released in 2022, Montreal’s ombudsman highlighted the need for the city and the province to do more to tackle Indigenous homelessness in the Milton Park neighbourhood, going as far as describing it as a humanitarian crisis.

That’s why the location was chosen to set up the project.

“Indigenous people live in this community as well, and so just like we are very particular about where we wanna chose where to live, so are they. This is their community,” Clark said.

Residents will be offered support in their recovery by intervention workers and elders.

They will also be able to access culturally-adapted programs and workshops to reconnect with their culture.

Half of the residents will be Inuit people.

The first residents will move in July 1st.

The goal is to expand the project in the neighbourhood.