Montreal merchants raise concerns after emergency shelter opens in downtown hotel

Business owners in Montreal’s Gay Village have expressed concern over a new winter emergency shelter that opened earlier this week at Hotel Place Dupuis.

The downtown hotel, located near the intersection of St-Hubert and Ste-Catherine streets in downtown Montreal, was transformed into a temporary shelter due to the increased need for services brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

The shelter is being run by the Welcome Hall Mission and can accommodate up to 380 people experiencing homelessness, be they male or female, transgender, couples or people with animals.

“It’s an overnight resource, so people come in at around eight o’clock at night and leave at around 9 o’clock in the morning,” Watts said.

Yannick Brouillette, CEO of Village Montreal, a local business association that represents 250 merchants in the area, recognized the need to provide vulnerable people with shelter but worried about the impact on the neighbourhood.

Brouillette said the opening of a temporary shelter at Camillien-Houde arena in the summer months gave rise to certain problems.

“In the past few months, we have seen behaviours that are not acceptable on the public space, such as human defecation, violent assaults and drug trafficking in front of shops,” he said.

“Merchants are not equipped to deal with such situations.”

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante admitted that “cohabitation” was at times difficult over the summer and understands merchants are preoccupied.

Sam Watts, CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission, said he also understands people will have concerns over the facility.

“But as we all know, the facility is in the middle of ground zero for homelessness in Montreal and so I think it’s appropriate that the facility actually be there,” he said.

While the Welcome Hall Mission is only responsible for managing what goes on inside the shelter, Watts said the organization is more than willing to take part in discussions to find solutions on how everyone can live together.

“We’re not responsible to manage what goes on out in the streets, but we’re certainly willing to collaborate with the people who do so that whatever it is we do contributes to the success overall of the whole neighbourhood,” he said.

Brouillette said Village Montreal is asking the City of Montreal and the Quebec government for a significant increase in resources allocated to the area — more specifically on the streets, where Brouillette says services are needed.

“We hope that we can see more police officers on the street,” he said.

“It’s not the only solution. We need social workers, we need psychologists, we need community organizations to be on the street every morning, every day, every night to be able to provide them with support.”

Brouillette also wants to see more resources for merchants.

“Equip the merchants with the tools they need to be able to face situations that they’re not necessarily equipped for,” he said.

Brouillette gave the example of a store owner arriving to open shop in the morning and finding a homeless person sleeping at the entrance.

“You don’t know what to do so you call the police,” he said. “But the police will not necessarily come right away. So what do you do? So these are the kind of resources we request in the Village.”

Plante said a meeting was scheduled for Thursday afternoon to discuss mitigation measures with local merchants.

“It was important for me to give them my take and give them some of the feedback on social workers that will be deployed there and the police officers in certain cases,” she said.

Following the meeting, Brouillette said that while the city’s action plan had few proposed interventions for the Village, the business association felt heard.

“We are confident that our needs have been understood and that more resources will be deployed on the ground,” he said. “We will be monitoring the situation closely in the coming days.”