Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the emergency shelter in Verdun was granted another 30-day long extension.
A temporary shelter for the unhoused — the former Jardins Gordon seniors residence in Verdun — was set to close Wednesday to prepare for the construction of affordable housing for seniors.
“Very unfortunate, especially for the people that are using those services right now,” said Marie-Pier Therrien, spokesperson for the Old Brewery Mission.
According to a city of Montreal spokesperson, more than half the clients have been relocated to other resources and work is underway to find alternatives for the remainder. The spokesperson said the shelter should have closed at the end of June but that there was a one-month extension.
Get daily National news
For weeks there was concern over the fate of the 50 clients who moved into the shelter last fall. According to Therrien, the recent uncertainty about the fate of the Verdun clientele is a clue to a larger problem.
“Finding space is a challenge,” she noted. “We’ve heard in the news all the social cohabitation issues that have been brought up.”
The most recent is opposition to the opening of a new shelter in the Ahuntsic neighbourhood. As a result, that project has now been shelved. There are reports that the Verdun residents were to be relocated there but a city spokesperson told Global News that there is no connection between the two locations.
Official opposition at the City of Montreal is lambasting the administration, saying the scramble to find new accommodation for the Verdun shelter residents is proof of the city’s poor planning in the midst of a homelessness crisis. The result, argues opposition leader Saref Salem, is stress and uncertainty.
“If we have a good way, a good organization, a good planning a good coordination, it won’t be like that,” he reasoned.
Construction of the affordable housing units at the former Jardins Gordon seniors home is expected to begin at the end of the summer.
Comments