A new building with 54 studios for vulnerable men at risk of homelessness was inaugurated Friday in the Ville-Marie borough in Montreal. This new housing offer, managed by the Maison du Père, welcomes men who are considered sufficiently independent to live in a community, while offering them support from a social worker.
“The idea of the community approach is to aim for housing autonomy, but to be present when needed,” explained Jaëlle Begarin, president and CEO of Maison du Père, an organization working with men in precarious or homeless situations.
All 54 men have been chosen and some have already moved into the studios located on Atateken Street. By the 1ster February, all the men will be installed. “I arrived here on December 21. It was a Christmas present! », said Nicolas, showing us around his new accommodation.
The 36-year-old man is supported by the SIM mental health program (intensive community monitoring) at his CLSC. “I haven’t been on the street, but I was paying too much in rent before. Here, we pay 25% of our income in rent. » Delighted, the young man, who is not able to work but who volunteers at the Maison du Père, plans to stay in his studio long term.
Densify
The building, which is the property of the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), was designed by architect Pierre Thibault. The three-story project was developed around an interior courtyard aimed at encouraging community living.
Originally, the site housed two buildings housing six affordable housing units and a business. Major work was necessary. “We saw an opportunity to densify the site and create a project that met the needs of the area,” argued Sophie Rousseau-Loiselle, general director of the SHDM.
The $13 million project, completed in five years without cost overruns, is the result of collaboration between the three levels of government. As part of the Canada-Quebec Agreement on the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI), the Government of Canada invested $5 million via the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
The SHDM put more than $5 million of its own funds into the project. The City of Montreal added another 2.4 million. The Quebec government has allocated 54 rent supplements so that residents only have to pay 25% of their income for housing. The new building is named the Robert-Lemaire Pavilion, in homage to this man who left a legacy to the Maison du Père.
Accelerate
To deal with the housing crisis, Benoit Dorais, vice-president of the executive committee, responsible for housing issues and real estate strategy at the City of Montreal, insisted that we must “accelerate the analysis processes and project delivery. The facilitating cell set up by the City of Montreal to accelerate real estate development will deploy its activities to all boroughs in 2024, he said.
For Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Member of Parliament for Laurier-Sainte-Marie, small projects, like the one inaugurated on Friday, must be prioritized in the field of social housing. “When we want to offer services to people who need them, doing projects with hundreds of units doesn’t work,” he stressed. For the clientele we are targeting today, it is smaller projects because these people need to be supported. »
A human approach which delights Louis, 79, who moved to the Robert-Lemaire pavilion a few weeks ago. “I was on the verge of no longer having a roof over my head,” he says. Recently released from therapy for drug and alcohol consumption, the man says he has found a certain serenity. “I was raised with a cane with physical and sexual abuse. But today, heaven rewards me. They provide us with everything here. You have to know how to appreciate it…”