Montreal to set up trailers for homeless encampment

MONTREAL — The City of Montreal is planning to spend $1.4 million on emergency services, including trailers for some of the residents living in an encampment with about 200 tents.

Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada promised the emergency support on Monday, near an encampment area that stretches out over two kilometres on Notre-Dame Street, in the eastern part of Montreal.

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“The ultimate goal is to have options so people don’t live in a tent near the highway,” Martinez Ferrada said at a news conference by the encampment.

In September, the city estimated there were nearly 180 people living in the encampment that is continuing to expand.

The mayor said the emergency support was a “transitional step” to getting people off the street and into permanent housing. She added that she doesn’t want a single tent left in the city’s largest encampment by the end of her mandate.

In tandem with community organization L’Anonyme, the city said it would ensure the trailers are open 24/7 and offer various services to help those experiencing homelessness.

The emergency project is expected to include 18 rooms with bunk beds for a total of 36 spots, as well as bathrooms, showers and a kitchenette. A total of 15 beds would be reserved for women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, according to the mayor.

The mayor said the facilities would be up and running in December and would be available to the dozens of people living in the encampment.

Homeless encampments have been shut down in both Saskatoon and Regina over the past few weeks.

A camp in Regina at Core Community Park was shuttered on Oct. 27 by Regina fire chief Layne Jackson called an “imminent” fire risk after several blazes at the encampment the weekend before, one of which sent someone to hospital.

“What we can confirm is a pattern of folks bringing open flame devices and open fires into their tents, along with compressed gases such as propane, which creates a very, very dangerous and imminent situation,” Jackson said.

In Saskatoon, a homeless encampment on 20th Street and Avenue K South was dismantled by the city on Oct. 8 after saying that encampments pose safety risks to those who live in them, and raise concerns about sanitation, gang activity, drug use as the sites grow.

Yvonne Raymer, Saskatoon’s deputy fire chief, said the fire department had responded to four fires at other encampments in the city the same week.

She said one fire destroyed a tent and spread to nearby trees in Optimist Park, another spread to brush and trees in the same park six hours later, and a third fire in the backyard of a vacant property destroyed a makeshift shelter. The next night a fire got out of control in a park off Idylwyld Drive.

Businesses near a large homeless encampment south of Prince Albert are also calling for its removal.

— with files by 980 CJME’s Geoff Smith and 650 CKOM’s Libby Gray

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