{"id":767,"date":"2008-04-07T07:52:57","date_gmt":"2008-04-07T12:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2008\/04\/07\/ville-maries-war-on-the-homeless\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:46:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:46:24","slug":"ville-maries-war-on-the-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/07\/ville-maries-war-on-the-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Ville-Marie’s war on the homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mario Paquet, target of a law preventing people from walking more than two dogs at once in Ville-Marie; photo by Ben Soo<\/i><\/p>\n

Under the leadership of mayor Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9, Montreal’s downtown borough has done everything it can to push its social problems into the closet. New laws preventing people from being in public squares at night<\/a> and walking more than two dogs at once<\/a> are recent attempts to expell the homeless from downtown’s public spaces; panhandling, noise and jaywalking laws are others that are often arbitrarily applied by police to target marginal people. <\/p>\n

This might make sense if the borough was also investing heavily in the social programs, charities and shelters that help people get off the street and into safer and more stable surroundings; it would be a stick-and-carrot approach meant to eradicate homelessness once and for all. But, as La Presse’s Mich\u00e8le Ouimet revealed over the weekend<\/a>, Ville-Marie appears to have no interest in getting rid of homelessness — just the homeless. Just as it is doing everything it can to push its most vulnerable inhabitants outside the borough, Ville-Marie has consistently failed to offer any serious aid to the many organizations working to fight poverty and homelessness within its own borders. <\/p>\n

\u00abM\u00eame si on les a souvent sollicit\u00e9s, on n’a rien re\u00e7u de la Ville de Montr\u00e9al, encore moins de l’arrondissement de Ville-Marie. Ils nous f\u00e9licitent pour notre travail, mais c’est tout.\u00bb<\/p>\n

C’est ce qu’affirme le p\u00e8re Sylvio Michaud, directeur associ\u00e9 de la Maison du P\u00e8re, qui accueille 150 sans-abri par nuit. Le refuge est situ\u00e9 au coeur de l’arrondissement de Ville-Marie, boulevard Ren\u00e9-L\u00e9vesque.<\/p>\n

Le maire de Ville-Marie, Benoit Labont\u00e9, a visit\u00e9 le refuge pendant la campagne \u00e9lectorale. \u00abIl n’est jamais revenu\u00bb, souligne le p\u00e8re Michaud.<\/p>\n

Les sans-abri prennent souvent le chemin du centre-ville. Parmi eux, de nombreux cas lourds. \u00abEntre 35% et 40% des itin\u00e9rants \u00e9prouvent des probl\u00e8mes graves de sant\u00e9 mentale, comme la schizophr\u00e9nie ou les troubles bipolaires\u00bb, explique Nancy Keas, chef de l’\u00e9quipe itin\u00e9rance au Centre de sant\u00e9 et de services sociaux Jeanne-Mance.<\/p>\n

(…) Les sans-abri ne sont pas les seuls \u00e0 avoir besoin d’aide. Ville-Marie abrite plusieurs groupes communautaires, mais le financement est laborieux.<\/p>\n

\u00abNos relations avec l’arrondissement ne sont pas toujours faciles, affirme prudemment Marie-\u00c8ve H\u00e9bert, directrice de la Corporation de d\u00e9veloppement \u00e9conomique, qui regroupe pr\u00e8s de la moiti\u00e9 des organismes communautaires de Ville-Marie. Plusieurs groupes ne comprennent pas les crit\u00e8res de financement fix\u00e9s par l’arrondissement.\u00bb<\/p>\n

Ville-Marie a un budget annuel de 75 millions. Les groupes communautaires ne re\u00e7oivent que 380 000$. C’est peu, trop peu.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Being homeless isn’t a choice — it’s usually the result of a mental illness, drug addiction or some other serious but treatable problem<\/a>. There are ways of dealing with it in the short term (by providing housing and shelter to get people off the streets immediately) and in the long term (by investing in health and social programs). A number of cities across North America have found creative ways of dealing with homelessness. New York is looking to its old flophouses<\/a> as a way of giving people who would otherwise be homeless a cheap, safe and clean place to live; Calgary is looking to build an apartment tower that will give homeless people a stepping stone between the streets and a home. <\/p>\n

Ville-Marie has no such plans. Its leaders seem to think they can legislate homelessness out of existence. In 2006, when the law preventing people from staying in squares after midnight was first passed, police swept through the downtown core, evicting people en masse. But the city’s shelters were already full and no alternative accommodations had been arranged, so the people who had been sleeping in the squares were left with nowhere to go. If this is the kind of approach our downtown borough is taking, how can we expect to ever deal seriously with homelessness?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mario Paquet, target of a law preventing people from walking more than two dogs at once in Ville-Marie; photo by Ben Soo Under the leadership of mayor Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9, Montreal’s downtown borough has done everything it can to push its social problems into the closet. New laws preventing people from being in public squares atContinue reading “Ville-Marie’s war on the homeless”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7831,7839,3537,7840,7841],"tags":[2143,334,649,467,1275,8,2145,48,2144,265,2146,2141,2140,346,2142,125,2139,352,376,49,68,69,302],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-neighbourhoods","category-parks","category-politics","category-services","tag-avoir-besoin-daide","tag-ben-soo","tag-benoit-labonte","tag-calgary","tag-chef","tag-city-hall","tag-de-sante-et-de-services","tag-downtown","tag-la-corporation","tag-la-presse","tag-law-preventing-people","tag-marie-eve-hebert","tag-mario-paquet","tag-mayor","tag-michele-ouimet","tag-montreal","tag-nancy-keas","tag-new-york","tag-north-america","tag-squares-and-parks","tag-public-services","tag-social-trends","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVille-Marie's war on the homeless - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/07\/ville-maries-war-on-the-homeless\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ville-Marie's war on the homeless - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mario Paquet, target of a law preventing people from walking more than two dogs at once in Ville-Marie; photo by Ben Soo Under the leadership of mayor Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9, Montreal’s downtown borough has done everything it can to push its social problems into the closet. 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