Residents and business owners of yet another Montreal neighbourhood are raising concerns about an explosion of drug use on the streets.
On Brady Street, a small alley between Clarke and St Urbain streets, there’s a tent encampment on a space that residents say was once a small park. Residents and merchants say people are afraid to walk there.
“We’ve had a couple of dumpster fires back there,” said Eric Ku, co-owner of Dobe and Andy Restaurant on St. Urbain.
The big problem, according to him and others, is that the spot on Brady has become a focal point for drug use, and they complain that addicts are making life difficult for the entire neighbourhood.
Over a two-day period, Global News witnessed several acts of what seemed to be drug use. On Wednesday morning, a reporter saw several people grouped together, sitting and using what seemed to be narcotics. Last week a reporter also saw someone sitting on the floor at the entrance to a multi-storey office building, smoking what appeared to be a crack pipe.
Ku said someone, who he thinks was an addict, walked into his restaurant and stole the cash from the register.
“Another time we got broken into, and this is all within the last couple months, broke into in the middle of the night,” he told Global News.
Vincent Lupien, who owns property in Chinatown, said it’s been even worse for him.
“I’ve had some encounters where I’ve been assaulted,” he said. “There are two people in jail now because of that.”
He said he now fears for the safety of his daughter, who just opened an ice cream store on St. Laurent Boulevard.
Merchants and residents are urging the city to find a way to help the addicts and get them off the streets.
“It’s such a shame to see that such a beautiful neighbourhood is marred by the constant plaque of needles, excrement,” Lupien said.
He said he fears the situation is also bad for business.
Those who work with the unhoused population say the drug use problem has worsened throughout the city since the pandemic. James Hughes, who runs the Old Brewery Mission shelter, a block from Chinatown, points to the need for housing.
“Here in Chinatown, in The Village, in Lachine, there’s need everywhere,” he said.
Hughes said his staff at the Old Brewery are intervening almost daily with naloxone for people who are overdosing.
“We did have one overdose here that resulted in a fatality last week,” he said.
Last week, the Quebec government announced funding of just over $1 million to help Montreal organizations that work with addicts, and the City of Montreal said it plans to beef up its Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention teams (ÉMMIS) in different neighbourhoods, to help tackle the problem.
Those who live in Chinatown hope these measures bring some relief.
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