Drug addiction and homelessness are creeping into a small park in Lower Town Quebec City that was once popular with families, a situation that is symptomatic of the social scourges that are increasingly plaguing public spaces in the capital, according to several organizations.
For the past two years, syringes, crack pipes, empty cans and soiled clothing have been strewn daily across the ground of the Moulin-de-l’Hôpital park and its playground. The latter, one of the few in this area straddling the Saint-Roch and Saint-Sauveur neighborhoods, hears less and less children’s laughter because the situation has become out of control in the eyes of the neighborhood.
“We haven’t been there for two or three weeks,” explains Nancy Thibeault, assistant director of the CPE Pomme d’Api, which is located on Saint-François Street West, a few steps from the park. “The girls find syringes and camps in the morning. We go elsewhere, to Durocher Park or Victoria Park, because it has become too dangerous.”
“I don’t go out at night anymore,” says Hélène Marcoux. At 76, this woman who moved a few years ago to a seniors’ residence a few steps from the park, no longer feels safe in the face of the gatherings that now take place there, where drugs and alcohol rub shoulders with homelessness and mental alienation.
“It sometimes overflowed into our house,” she adds. “There were people who came to wash in the bathroom on the ground floor and sleep in the hallways. The back door now remains locked at night.”
Before, I would say it was more hidden. Today, it is as if there is no longer any embarrassment — and families go to the park less and less.
“This goes beyond what is acceptable”
The situation has continued for several seasons, to the great displeasure of families and neighbors, who are abandoning this oasis which has become unfrequented in their eyes.
“I’ve lived next to the park since 2021,” says Julie, a neighbor who prefers not to give her last name. “The first summer, I used to go there a lot, the park was the fun. Now I’m not going there anymore. The situation is beyond normal and acceptable.”
On Wednesday night, she could still see someone preparing his dose through her kitchen window — a scene that is part of her daily life. “It creates a certain amount of psychological distress,” she explains, “to see people injecting themselves every day next to your home, screaming and blasting music at all hours.”
Julie, who has lived in Quebec City for several years, says she has “never seen a situation as bad” as the one that exists right outside her apartment. People sometimes walk around in their underwear in the park or even change in this public place. “Before, I would say it was more hidden. Today, it’s as if there were no more inconveniences — and families go to the park less and less. I have nothing against the cohabitation desired by the City of Quebec, but I think it has to go both ways. I can’t move either, given the current rent prices.”
The City in Action
Since the 1er May, the City of Quebec declared having received three reports in connection with “incidents” which occurred at the Moulin-de-l’Hôpital park, named so because of the heritage mill which overlooks it, built by the Augustinians in the first half of the 18th century.e century, just a few steps from the capital’s general hospital. The building, restored in 2013 by the city, is one of the oldest buildings in Quebec City. Today, homeless people sleep around it and graffiti sporadically appears on its thatched facade.
The city explains that it has improved syringe collection operations “for the period from May to October”, particularly in places “which welcome children”.
Quebec has already pruned trees in Parc du Moulin-de-l’Hôpital to make it more difficult to conceal wrongdoing, in addition to increasing lighting and moving a picnic table closer to Langelier Boulevard and making it more visible.
Police authorities have also been increasing their patrols around the park since last year. “The SPVQ, through its MULTI team, visits Moulin-de-l’Hôpital Park very regularly, as do other parks in the area,” wrote the Quebec City police in Duty in August 2023.
A growing problem everywhere
The situation is still problematic a year later. Last weekend, a mother in the area posted a photo on social media showing the syringes found around children’s playgrounds. Point de repères, a community organization that works with drug addicts, is working with the City of Quebec to remove consumer items from parks.
We have asked public works to do more frequent rounds to remove syringes from the park and we have made sure that these rounds continue over time.
“The situation started to become problematic at Parc du Moulin-de-l’Hôpital about a year ago,” explains the organization’s general manager, Mario Gagnon. Since then, the place has cemented its reputation as a place of consumption, he observes, a phenomenon that is spreading to other areas of the capital.
“There’s not just work in this park,” Mario Gagnon points out. “Homelessness is on the rise, drugs are more accessible and similar problems are now cropping up all over Quebec City.”
The duty met with a patrol assigned to clean up Parc du Moulin-de-l’Hôpital early Thursday morning. The situation there “is nothing like” that of the dozen or so other parks in Lower Town under his supervision, according to a member of the squad. “It’s worse — by far. In the morning, there are often dirty syringes and people sleeping in the grass.” Clothes left to dry on the fence were evidence of the growing presence of homeless people in the area.
District councillor Pierre-Luc Lachance has been working for “several weeks” with various organizations to address the problem, explains cabinet attaché Élainie Lepage. “We asked public works to do more frequent rounds to remove syringes from the park and we made sure that these rounds continue over time,” she adds.
Young people in difficulty next door
Many people in the area point to Maison Marie-Frédéric, a youth center […] in difficulty, as one of the causes of the overflows. The police, however, refutes this claim. “We have no information to the effect that the people who frequent the park,” they write, “are the same as those who frequent the Maison Marie-Frédéric.”
“80% of the people in the park are not old enough to use our services,” explains Sylvain Gervais, the organization’s general manager. “That’s not our clientele.” The Maison, he adds, works with the City and is “very, very strict about respecting public spaces, codes of conduct and behavior management.”
“80% of the people in the park are not old enough to use our services,” explains Sylvain Gervais, the organization’s general manager. “That’s not our clientele.” The Maison, he adds, works with the City and is “very, very strict about respecting public spaces, codes of conduct and behavior management.”
“For us, it’s fundamental,” he explains. The young people in the process of healing and empowerment who frequent the resource are “also” tested by the excesses, which are becoming commonplace in the park, according to the general director.
“These are young people who are taking flight, around whom we place teams capable of supervising them and taking care of them. Of course, they are also suffering the repercussions of the situation. At the same time, it is a problem that is found almost everywhere in the city centre, it is not specific to the park next door. There is homelessness in Portneuf, on the Côte-de-Beaupré, in Lévis: it is overflowing everywhere. It is not the Maison Marie-Frédéric that is causing this. On the contrary, we are getting young people off the street – we are helping to alleviate the problem.”