The City of Longueuil announced on Friday that the Cynthia-Coull arena, in the borough of Greenfield Park, will be converted into a temporary accommodation center for homeless people.
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This announcement comes the day after the closure of a shelter in the city due to an outbreak of COVID-19, in order to maintain the service offer for this more vulnerable clientele. Thus, 200 beds will be offered for these homeless people in the arena.
“In this dragging pandemic context and with the cold temperatures expected in the coming days, it is essential to quickly mobilize our resources to proactively support community organizations and initiatives offering emergency housing and assistance services to people. travellers,” said Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier.
The City also highlighted the work of the CISSSs of Montérégie-Est and Montérégie-Centre, which succeeded in rapidly increasing the reception capacity of the accommodation center “They have dedicated the professional resources necessary to offer the services required for homeless people housed at the Cynthia-Coull arena”, is it specified in the press release.
Already on Thursday, a dozen homeless people were able to spend the night on this new site and people not infected with COVID-19 hosted by the Halte du Coin were redirected to RTL buses to spend the night there.
“Since the very beginning of the pandemic, the City of Longueuil has facilitated the coordination and planning of actions, together with the community, as well as with the CISSSs, to ensure support for people in vulnerable situations on the territory; some of them also being infected with COVID19”, mentioned the City.