Two Longueuil police officers are being recognized for their intervention in a case where a senior citizen was being evicted from her apartment with no place to go.
Debbie Burchmore, 70, was thrown out of her apartment on René-Philippe Street in the LeMoyne district on Wednesday for not paying her rent.
Two officers on duty contacted the Red Cross to make sure she had a place to stay temporarily and they convinced the landlord not to remove Burchmore’s personal belongings. Instead, the senior citizen now has several days to collect her items.
“They were really magnificent,” Edgar Hay-Ellis told Global News.
Hay-Ellis says he’s an acquaintance of Burchmore from the days when she used to sing in the choir of a local church.
He was thrilled to see how the officers mobilized to connect the Red Cross with Burchmore and ensured the landlord would give her more time to pick up her items.
“They did everything in their power to make sure that this lady was taken care of,” he said.
The work of the officers is an illustration of a protocol the Longueuil Police Department initiated last Decemeber.
Many officers now work a lot more closely with the community, getting to know people on an individual basis.
”We must react and take actions to find solutions in very short deadlines,” François Boucher, a Longueuil Police spokesperson, told Global News.
Burchmore lives on a fixed income and says she has no family.
Her priority is making sure she can find a new home that’s affordable and will accept pets — she has two cats.
”I want my two cats to be with me. They are the only thing in my life that really cares,” she told Global News.
The local regional health board is now working on Burchmore’s file to help her find a new home.
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