Montreal North wants to keep its homeless day center

Françoise Bouchard hopes that funding will be maintained so that the day center can continue its activities.

Faced with a possible reduction in funding, the organization l'Amour en action and elected officials are mobilizing to maintain the day center that has been helping homeless people in Montreal North for over a year .

The organization based in the basement of the Saint-Rémi church applied for an “ideal” budget of $900,000 under a federal program administered by the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’ de-Montréal, in the hope of being able to extend its daytime services and thus meet the growing demand.

The assistant director, Françoise Bouchard, did not expect to obtain all of the amount requested. However, she “fallen from above” when the CIUSSS announced to the team that only $ 50,000 could be granted to her from the end of March. Last year, the organization received $150,000.

“We expected to receive at least as much, maybe even a little more,” she drops.< /p>

She hopes that the CIUSSS will change its tune at a meeting scheduled for March 8, otherwise the day center could cease its activities.

Growing demand

Every evening, the approximately 30 beds in the heat drop-in center are occupied, so that in all and everywhere, 400 people have attended the day center since June, says Ms. Bouchard.

“The pandemic has driven people out of the city center. When everything closed, they came back to places they know,” she explains.

The federal funding made it possible to pay part of the rent costs as well as the salaries of two workers. and a stove. If it is reduced by a third, the organization will only be able to pay a social worker.

“We need the cook. People come to see the social worker when they come to eat,” argues Ms. Bouchard.

With the COVID programs coming to an end, there is concern that we will no longer have enough funding to offer our services. We know, however, that the needs are great.

Françoise Bouchard

Preoccupied elected officials

The Mayor of Montreal North, Christine Black, is concerned about a potential reduction in funding and services.

“It's a very surprising decision,” she said in a telephone interview. This concerns me because Amour en action does important work with homeless people. With the pandemic, hidden homelessness has become visible.”

She recalls that over the past two years, people have taken up residence behind the Henri-Bourassa library, then on a vacant lot of rue de Charleroi.

For the MNA for Bourassa-Sauvé, Paule Robitaille, it is no longer possible to deny that homelessness exists in Montreal North.

“It is fundamental that Love in Action has adequate funding. This is our only roaming organization. It is unacceptable that they receive less funding when demand increases,” she argued.

For its part, the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de- Montreal indicates that the analysis of financial requests is still in progress with all the organizations. “Out of respect for the regular process of analysis and adjustments, it is not possible to give more details at this time,” one wrote in an email.