To deal with the increasingly problematic coexistence between vulnerable populations and the district’s tourist and residential area, the City of Montreal set up a crisis unit last February to try to ensure the conviviality and, in particular, the safety of the district.
The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, stressed in a press conference that the police forces had been strengthened, especially in the vicinity of parks and public squares and in the subway stations of the sector.
In addition, a Community Consultation and Rapprochement Team (ECCR) was deployed on site to find sustainable solutions to the challenges of urban security and social coexistence. The CIUSSS Centre-Sud and Centre-Ouest are also called upon to help vulnerable populations in the region.
Focus on Place Emilie-Gamelin
In the strategy unveiled on Thursday, designed to be a continuation of these measures, we pledge additional amounts and resources specifically earmarked for the village’s summer time.
This money will be used, among other things, to set up an intervention team specialized in intercultural relations in the Place Émilie-Gamelin sector, to offer newcomers special assistance and an interpreting service. When other actors intervene on Place Émilie-Gamelin.
Place Émilie-Gamelin is the meeting place for many people who live on the streets of Montreal.
Photo: Radio Canada / Ivanoh Demers
An intervention team specialized in the prevention of sexual violence (GRIP Montreal) is also deployed in the same sector to carry out local interventions and provide psychosocial support.
Two people in psychosocial intervention from the Mobile Social Intervention Mediation Team (EMMIS) have also been newly assigned exclusively to the Place Émilie-Gamelin and Village sectors, seven days a week, as we promise in the strategy. of collective intervention for the village.
There is also a public cleanliness plan and additional budgets to improve the design of Place Émilie-Gamelin and the village entrance. Street entertainment will also be on the agenda to claim more public space.
Additional funds are also announced to improve the animation of the premises in winter.
“We will not give up, we want it to be safe in the village. The efforts of the last few months are beginning to bear fruit […] but that’s not all settled yet. »
– A quote from Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
Life is getting harder and harder
But despite the more visible police on the streets and the work of community teams, coexistence remains one of the most problematic in the neighborhood, where sidewalks and public spaces serve as havens for the homeless and drug addicts.
The SPVM at the scene, Sainte-Catherine Street, at the Beaudry junction
Photo: Radio Canada / Benoît Gagnon
“We have seen with COVID that it has put undue pressure on the sector. I would even speak of a certain fraction in the neighborhood. »
– A quote from Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
The streets, parks, and metro station environs—often littered with litter and excrement—where wild animals roam that are as turbulent as they are disruptive, increasingly discourage visitors from even sitting on a terrace or even the pedestrianized area of Rue Sainte -Catherine to enter so popular.
For some residents of the neighborhood, living together in the village has long since reached its limits.
“Now we have arrived at law and order,” emphasizes one of them and laments a certain discrepancy in the measures taken in the neighborhood. They hand out tickets to pedestrians who don’t cross the René-Lévesque and Alexandre-de-Sève intersection, while a few people smoke crack on a bench 30 meters away.
Merchants at bay
The situation has deteriorated to such an extent in recent years that bar and restaurant owners have given up opening a street terrace because customers and staff are being harassed by people in crisis, homeless or drug addicts who live on Rue Sainte. Catherine.
Several companies are located near the Émilie Gamelin Park.
Photo: Radio Canada / Benoit Chapdelaine
The owners, who have created terraces, complain about the low traffic and the difficulty in finding workers under these conditions. Some customers are harassed at their seat, others have their glass or plate stolen, or are forced to eat while witnessing an altercation or psychosis on the street.
Since the pandemic and the deepening housing crisis, the Village and its subway stations have become a year-round haven for a large number of vulnerable people. Some angry residents point to an open-air asylum.
Last January, the Archambault Group announced the permanent closure of its nearly 100-year-old store on Sainte-Catherine Street East, citing the progressive deterioration in business prospects in the area, which management says is becoming a laboratory of urban diversity has.
A situation denounced by the leader of the official opposition in the town hall, Aref Salem, who regrets that it took the merchants of Sainte Catherine Street to strike from their terrace so that the mayor could comment on the situation in the village could think.
“It is all the more unfortunate when we talk about the district that she has ruled for six years,” he added.
According to Aref Salem, the vision presented by the city government is a first step, but he doubts that this plan can give the district the boost it needs.
A complex problem
Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, which becomes pedestrianized in the Village in summer, attracts many visitors.
Photo: Radio Canada / Jean-Claude Taliana
This strategy presented by the city is the result of a year of work and consultation with residents, traders and various social and institutional actors in the neighborhood.
When we think about the future of the village, we have to think about security, but we also have to have a vision, a direction in which we are all moving forward together, with goals or at least homework to do according to our roles and responsibilities “, explains Valerie Plante.
We need to care about access to housing and adapted services, we need to care about healthcare, including mental health, we need to care about the safety and support of the most vulnerable, but also about public development and cleanliness, he summarizes The mayor recalled that visible progress had been made, but that it would take time and effort to restore the district’s luster and attractiveness.
QS welcomes the initiative
An approach welcomed by Solidarity MP Manon Massé, whose parish of Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques includes the village.
“When we are going through a crisis, it is important to work together and involve everyone,” said Ms. Massé, who offered her full cooperation on this strategy.
However, I believe the city of Montreal needs to make significant efforts to include marginalized people, who need to be part of the equation, the MP added.
I would also like to remind you how important it is to act beforehand to prevent situations: when people can no longer find shelter, adequate nutrition or treatment, the consequences are devastating and the village suffers as a result.
“I appeal to the CAQ to pull themselves together, take a big step forward in social housing and respond to the repeated calls of alarm from community groups supporting our fellow citizens.”
– A quote from Manon Massé, Solidarity MNA for Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques