Old Brewery Mission CEO calls on Montreal to speed up plans to open wet shelter

The time to study wet shelters in Montreal is long past — the city needs to take action.

That's the message Matthew Pearce, the CEO and president of Montreal's Old Brewery Mission, wants to send to the Plante administration, which promised to build a place where alcoholics living on the streets can go to consume alcohol in a managed way.

The city announced its support for a wet shelter earlier this year, as part of a wider, $7.8-million strategy to combat homelessness in Montreal. 

However, it's still at the stage of studying the impact this type of shelter would have on homeless people.

It doesn't need to do that, Pearce says, because wet shelters have already proven to be successful in Toronto and Ottawa.

"It's a model that we know well. It's proven its success, and so I'm a little bit impatient to get it started in Montreal," he told CBC News this week.

"The city wants to start it, and I say, 'Why take so long?'"

City plans to have wet shelter up and running in 2020

According to the city's plan, a study will be completed in 2019 — in co-ordination with the local health and social services agency — to determine what type of services would best promote the health and social inclusion of alcoholics in Montreal.

Then, the city says at least one wet shelter will be up and running in 2020.

But Pearce says a building is for sale right next door to the Old Brewery Mission, and the city should jump at the chance to buy it to house the wet shelter.

That building, at 11 Saint-Antoine Street West, used to house Simon's Cameras, which closed on July 28. 

"Grab it as quickly as possible, and then we can move to open this service," he said.

The city did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News Tuesday.

Goal is to get people out of homelessness

Right now, homeless people in Montreal who are living with alcohol dependencies often don't choose to sleep at the Old Brewery Mission because they would need to stop drinking in order to stay at the shelter, Pearce explained.

He said that leaves them vulnerable to binge-drinking on the streets, as well as to consuming dangerous substances that contain alcohol in order to get drunk, such as common household cleansers or aftershave.

A wet shelter is important because it gives people a way to "move toward other levels of treatment and help them get out of homelessness," Pearce said.

"It's not magic," he said.

"It's just controlled consumption … that brings an out-of-control urge into control. I saw that with my own eyes in Toronto. We want to see it happen here as quickly as possible."