Chinatown shelter set to close after residents complain

A shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Chinatown is set to close at the end of October after complaints from people with homes and businesses in the area.

City authorities, the police, residents, merchants and community organizations held a meeting Wednesday to discuss how people will live together in the neighbourhood after the City of Montreal announced it won't renew the shelter's lease when it ends this fall.

Bill Wong has lived at the nearby Guy-Favreau complex for 16 years, and said security and cleanliness are the main issues.

He said people fight in the streets at night, use drugs and commit vandalism in front of his building.

"It's like a chaotic and lawless place," he said.

Wong is happy the shelter will close in October, but says it's "just a start." He also wants brighter streetlamps, more cameras and more patrol officers in the area.

'Understand the causes'

But the issues go back a few years, said May Chiu, co-ordinator of the Chinatown Roundtable, adding that the atmosphere of the meeting was "tense."

The Chinatown YMCA closed its doors at the end of 2019, and when the pandemic hit it was temporarily turned into a shelter for unhoused Indigenous people. Although that shelter closed in a few months, Chiu said nearby residents were already starting to complain.

With the increased need for shelters over the last two years, the city leased the building to another shelter.

Chiu said while residents are relieved the new shelter will close and are "counting the minutes" to Oct. 31, that won't solve the problem as it doesn't get to the root of the issue.

"We understand the needs of the residents to have a quick fix, a quick solution. But this problem is so complex because it involves the housing crisis, it involves the crisis of social services ... the huge need for mental health services has gone unaddressed," she said.

"If you want to find a sustainable, long-term, global, effective solution, we have to understand the causes. But I think in general the residents are so fed up and want immediate relief, they just want the shelter closed."

Chiu said she hoped there could be a better relationship between housed and unhoused residents after the Chinatown Roundtable organized a public assembly on the topic in May.

The city said the shelter will have to be relocated "due to major works planned by the building's owner" and pledged to work with partners to find "an alternative site to avoid any disruption to services for vulnerable people in the area."

"We are in between many different crises that affect homelessness, mental illness and drug use in public spaces," said Simon Charron, a spokesperson for the mayor's office.

Charron said the city was also intensifying the presence of police patrols and the Équipe mobile de médiation et d'intervention sociale (EMMIS) — a team of intervention workers who respond to conflicts involving people in precarious living situations.

"We continue the discussion with every partner to improve our actions to reduce the insecurity feeling, help the most vulnerable people and tackle the crises," Charon said.