New transitional housing project for Indigenous people opening in Montreal's Milton Park

A new transitional housing project in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough's Milton Park neighbourhood will be home to 14 Indigenous people working to get sober and back on their feet. 

Maison Annagiarvik, located on Sainte-Famille Street, will house residents — half of them Inuit — who are exiting detox. They will be able to stay for a maximum of five years, the duration of the lease.

Spearheaded by the non-profit Projets Autochtones du Québec (PAQ), the project is intended to be a step forward in people's fight against addiction.

"We're trying to find people who are really … ready to move forward. They're ready to start that healing journey, or they already have and they need a place to keep it going," said Thomas Addison, the transitional housing co-ordinator for the PAQ.

A caseworker will be available 35 hours a week on site, and residents will also have access to culturally adapted resources, such as elders from different Indigenous backgrounds and workshops to connect with their cultural and personal histories.

Leilani Shaw, executive director of the Montreal Indigenous Community Network, says these resources are desperately required in Montreal — especially for those who are far from home. 

"What many Indigenous people are lacking is a real positive sense of identity and self in an urban setting," she said.

"With each new program that we build or each new art mural that we put up or art installation that goes up, that's kind of one step closer to having what could be seen as a positive sense of identity."

Sarah Clark, PAQ's marketing and fundraising manager, says the need in Milton Park is "massive." She says the non-profit served just under 1,000 Indigenous people last year in the urban centre of Montreal alone. 

"That's a 12 per cent increase over last year at this time," she said. 

In a 2022 report, Montreal's ombudsman called the plight of the Indigenous homeless population in the neighbourhood a "humanitarian crisis" and highlighted the need for the city and the province to do more to tackle the issue. 

Joey Partridge, director of Makivvik's Reaching Home and Urban Inuit program, says the community has been trying to "find a solution to the crisis" for years. He says this project is a good place to start. 

"I know this will help and benefit the community that is so in need of support, especially for transitional housing, coming [off] the street …getting all the support necessary to be able to function as a human being and not be completely blinded and lost," he said. 

Addison says he hopes this will be the first of many similar transitional homes.

"A place like this will get full. We could open five of these and they'll all get full, right. The need is there for sure. People need housing. People need adapted housing," he said. 

The first residents will start moving in July 1. 

The PAQ hopes to be able to keep Maison Annagiarvik well beyond the initial five-year lease.