Friday’s major water leak did not spare the premises of the community group L’Itinéraire, which is now juggling between maintaining its activities and restoring its basement.
The basement of L’Itinéraire was covered by two feet of water Friday morning when a pipe rupture flooded a large portion of the Centre-Sud.
Result: “a lot of damage,” according to Luc Desjardins, president and CEO of the organization located at the intersection of Sainte-Catherine Street and De Lorimier Avenue.
The organization that helps people experiencing homelessness lost fridges, donated clothing, a significant amount of food and part of its archives in the disaster, according to Luc Desjardins. Nearly 15,000 copies of the magazine The Itinerary were also damaged by water.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF THE ROUTE
Water rushed into the basement of L’Itinéraire on Friday
But the CEO is not letting this dismay him. “Despite everything, we are maintaining our psychosocial services, we are maintaining the printing of the magazine,” he says, specifying that the disaster area of the building was completely cleaned on Monday.
We consider ourselves a front-line service. If L’Itinéraire drops out, we’re not sending a very good message to the people we serve.
Luc Desjardins, President and CEO of L’Itinéraire
A test
With no news from insurers since the water leak, Luc Desjardins did not wait to start the repair work. “If we wait, we do not provide services, and if we do not provide services, 110 people per day will suffer,” he says.
Within a week, the kitchen located in the organization’s basement will be completely destroyed and decontaminated. While waiting for its reconstruction, L’Itinéraire’s food safety services have been relocated to another location by the City of Montreal.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF THE ROUTE
The organization had to throw away large quantities of material damaged by water
The disaster was a real ordeal for the street vendors and employees of L’Itinéraire, twelve of whom come from a social reintegration program, according to the president and CEO, who does not hide his fatigue after a week of crisis management.
“Is it frustrating? Well, yes. We had other things to do than fix something that wasn’t our fault,” he says.
Many people have sent donations to the organization, according to Luc Desjardins, who hopes that the damaged premises of L’Itinéraire will be repaired by the holiday season. “I’m optimistic. We’re moving forward, we’ll get through this,” he adds.