Verdun emergency shelter gets last-minute reprieve thanks to agreement

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.

But on Tuesday afternoon, the city said officials have worked out an agreement to keep the shelter open for another month. According to a spokesperson, more than half the clients have been relocated to other resources and work is underway to find alternatives for the remainder.

Therrien believes it’s good news since, for weeks, there was concern over the fate of the 50 clients who moved into the shelter last fall.

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“There’s a lot of uncertainty for a couple of resources at this point,” she told Global News. “It’s definitely putting a lot more pressure on the big ones like Old Brewery, which is operating at full capacity.”

According to her, 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 last-minute reprieve 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.