“We’re not at home anywhere. We no longer know where to go. » Three months after being chased from a park where they had pitched their tents, residents of the Ahuntsic neighborhood, in the north of Montreal, were expelled from another wooded area where they had settled. They are devastated to be moved again.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Scott DeRapp and his two neighbors were preparing to pack up their tents. They picked up their folding chairs and cooler. They didn’t know where they were going to spend the night. Once again. It became a habit. The three men in their fifties have been struggling for months to find accommodation, but they find nothing, not even a piece of land where they can live peacefully in their tents.
“We were happy here, we had a great summer,” said one of the campers, who asked to remain anonymous, with a sigh.
We meet the three neighbors on the wooded land adjacent to Sophie-Barat high school, on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies. They had settled in this isolated place after classes ended last June. They had just been expelled from Basile-Routhier Park, near there, where they had camped for almost a year — including during the winter.
Wednesday morning, the three campers found a letter on their tents signed by the school management: “Due to the presence of students, educational activities, etc. on the grounds, the school cannot accommodate occupants. Therefore, we ask you to leave the site immediately and not leave your belongings there. »
The campers “had to be expelled to ensure the safety of the students and the community,” says Alain Perron, spokesperson for the Montreal School Service Center. “There were fires on the school grounds. Small gas stoves and drug paraphernalia were found on the property. »
Guardian angels
The school principal offered help to the three evicted campers. Scott DeRapp and his friends could already count on the support of two guardian angels, street workers Marc-André Lachapelle and Annie Archambault, who accompany homeless people from the north of the island.
“We are in a dead end. We move people instead of solving their problem,” says Marc-André Lachapelle, of the organization RAP Jeunesse, which offers a day center and social services to homeless people in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. The housing and homelessness crisis is hitting the north of Montreal hard, explains the street worker. There are very few accommodations or rooms accessible to people on social assistance. There are no shelters for homeless people in the neighborhood. Hardly any social housing either. However, the solution is simple: “We need subsidized housing where tenants pay 25% of their income,” says Mr. Lachapelle.
The street worker and his colleague help the three campers pack their camping equipment. The group was preparing to walk in search of another discreet place, a little further away, where they could establish a temporary camp. While waiting, no doubt, to be chased away once again.
A clean and busy place
During the passage of representatives of the Duty, the makeshift campsite was clean. Scott DeRapp and his friends had DIYed a homemade campfire pit. They say they have had occasional visits from police and firefighters. The campers were discreet: they spent their days elsewhere in town and came back to sleep.
“It’s a place where there have always been camps of homeless people. Despite all the precautions they take, they have difficulty being accepted,” says Marc-André Lachapelle.
Teacher Michel Stringer, from the Sophie-Barat school, says he has come across campers over the years. In 2021, he and his students presented a major outdoor show just a stone’s throw from the wooded area, and fraternized with a traveling camper. “He was asked to stay there and watch the show. He came to eat with the rest of us on the picnic tables. Everything went well. »