St. Michael’s Mission, which works with Montreal’s most vulnerable communities, is at risk of closing.
Director general George Greene tells Global News he realized the non-profit was in trouble in March, at the end of the last fiscal year.
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“If we don’t get financial support, we risk — we’re in the red — we’re very, very close to having to cut back services,” he said.
“We are in dire straits.”
The day mission, which was founded in 1927, works with disadvantaged and homeless communities in downtown Montreal.
“It’s a place I could call almost like home,” said Wayne Roch, a man who has going to St. Michael’s Mission for 48 years.
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It offers food — Tuesday alone, the mission served 282 meals — as well as showers, clothing and more.
“I just like to come here because the faces are familiar,” said Wayne. “People are friendly. The staff is good. Food is good.”
St. Michael’s Mission also provides crisis intervention as well as assistance in welfare, unemployment, immigration and refugee issues.
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“We have payroll to pay, we pay a rather large rent to the church each month,” Greene told Global News, adding the organization needs about $200,000 more to keep it going.
“What we would have to do is have shorter hours and have our employees probably work only two days a week.”
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The mission said it is doing everything it can to keep afloat, even asking for donations of food, clothing and feminine hygiene products for the women in its care.
If the mission doesn’t raise enough money to keep itself afloat, Greene said it will be forced to close by October.
“This is probably one of the most unique missions in Montreal, we know everyone by their name,” he told Global News.
“I know what their problems are and some of them a quite grave — fentanyl is part of the vocabulary right now.”
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rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
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—with files from Global’s Cora MacDonald