“It’s not a happy place to grow up”

Twenty-five impaired or homeless people crammed into a single alley, just steps from the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). Thefts. Garbage littering the ground. Abandoned syringes. The smell of urine and feces. Overwhelmed merchants. Worried residents. Since COVID-19, Chinatown has been plagued by an increase in drug addiction and homelessness, according to merchants and residents.

“I don’t have confidence anymore,” said Carmen Wu, a 20-year-old Chinatown resident.

When she was younger, she would go out without worry. Today, at night, she takes precautions. She never travels with a handbag and never takes her phone out in plain sight.

Last winter, she received a call from her mother one evening, a call that was the last straw.

Her mother had left her keys in the lock of the entrance to the building where they live. She had not yet reached their apartment when she realized it. But it was too late. According to her account, a homeless woman had stolen her keys and refused to give them back. Caught off guard, the mother called her daughter, who went to the apartment. M^me Wu had to pay the homeless woman $50 to get her own keys back.

It is not uncommon for some residents who speak neither English nor French to struggle to cope with altercations with English- and French-speaking homeless people and drug addicts, due to the language barrier. This is the opinion of about fifteen employees and residents of Chinatown met by The Press.

Chinatown suffers from its geographic location, explains Old Brewery Mission vice-president Émilie Fortier. “It’s a downtown neighbourhood. […] And you could hardly be more central to all the resources.” The shelters at the Old Brewery Mission and Accueil Bonneau are just a few minutes’ walk away. The CACTUS injection centre is too. And the supervised housing of Projets autochtone du Québec is in the very heart of De La Gauchetière Street.

A concern experienced by all

Carmen’s worry Wu is a common sight in the neighbourhood. Police statistics attest to the extent of the problem. Chinatown is located in the heart of the territory of neighbourhood police station 21, which includes the city centre, Notre-Dame and Sainte-Hélène islands and Old Montreal. In 2021, this area had the highest crime rate in Montreal, with 207 crimes per 1,000 residents, according to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).

Between 2021 and 2023, property offences – such as simple theft and motor vehicle theft – saw the largest increase there, with an annual increase of 44.9% in 2022 and 29.7% in 2023, compared to 21.2% and 11% for the entire Montreal territory.

Carmen Tang resides at the Habitations du Complexe Guy-Favreau, which was an emergency shelter for the homeless between 2021 and 2023. Christmas 2022, homeless people forced open the door on the stairs of the Habitations and stole packages, says M^me Tang. For the past two months, chip readers have been added to elevators and stairwells leading to apartments, a security measure that more than one building in the neighborhood has implemented.

M^me Tang lived in Saint-Léonard until 2016. Coming from a family of five children, she is worried about her youngest sibling, aged 3. Every day, she sees people sleeping on the street, obviously drunk or on drugs. “It’s not a happy place to grow up.”

On a Wednesday afternoon in July, three tents—which were soon to be dismantled, as they were almost every week—were set up across from the Guy-Favreau complex, near the fountain. The benches in front of the building were once used by residents. That day, it was a person smoking crack who was there.

The nearby alley full of nooks and crannies is haunted by drug dealers, he was able to observe. The Press“No one walks there at night. It’s too dangerous,” says Carmen Tang.

The difficulties of traders

M^me Tang works at a buffet on Clark Street. Concerned residents asked the Ville-Marie borough to install lights there a year ago. On the northern portion of the street, 15 of the 25 businesses are closed or boarded up.

Another stole food from the buffet. The dishes had to be thrown away, she claims.

Carmen Wu also observed the same thing at the restaurant where she works. The front of the rotisserie has bars. “That’s because windows have been broken in the past to steal our cash register at night,” she says.

Tourist, yes, but for how long?

Chinatown is highly touristic. Employees met at two of the hotels there say they are considering quitting their jobs, or have changed shifts to work days instead of nights, for security reasons.

“Homelessness is terrible. It’s disastrous,” notes Jean Graton, who manages the parking lot of a hotel on the corner of Saint-Laurent and Viger. On his iPad, he has access to images from 16 surveillance cameras. He has seen homeless people steal from the breakfast buffet or take chairs or tables from the hotel. Others shoot up or sleep in his parking lot. Some steal the contents of cars.

The exit from the parking lot leads to Saint-Dominique Street, where he takes us. “This is the door for drug addicts,” he says, pointing to an unused hotel exit door. Every day, homeless people go there to consume.

A month ago, a woman overdosed just steps from the nearby public parking lot. She was found dead behind the trash cans, near the alleyway on De La Gauchetière Street, according to an employee of the parking lot. During a visit by The Press15 homeless people were there on a short stretch. Another day, 25. Condoms and syringes were lying on the sidewalk. Several people were visibly drunk or drugged. An argument broke out. “She’s too in her head anyway. Leave her and give me my cigarette,” shouted a homeless woman.

Complex solutions

Finding a solution is not easy, according to Mei Chiu, general coordinator of the Chinatown Roundtable. “I understand the ‘not in my backyard’ attitude of residents, who want to drive [les sans-abri] outside the neighborhood. But we have seen for several years that it does not work. If we push towards the Village, the Village mobilizes and pushes back towards Chinatown.

We must focus on cohabitation between residents, shopkeepers and the homeless in the area, says M.^me Chiu. In 2024, more than $450,000 was invested by Ville-Marie to revitalize Chinatown. Among the projects put forward, a community garden in front of the CHSLD aims to promote social diversity in the neighborhood by focusing on its community organizations.

For the first time, in response to recent events, the SPVM has set up a patrol that visits the neighbourhood several times a day. The Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team (EMMIS) also tours the neighbourhood every day.

“Although the powers of action of the City and the borough are limited in matters of drug addiction and mental health, everything is being done to revitalize Chinatown, improve the feeling of security and support the merchants in this sector that is central to Montreal’s DNA,” says Simon Charron, press attaché in the office of Mayor Valérie Plante.

For Émilie Fortier of the Old Brewery Mission, these are good “first steps” to make residents feel safer, but what is really needed is more shelters to get the homeless off the streets. However, this solution does not work for the entire homeless population in the neighbourhood, which has significant consumption issues.

It is for these complex cases that we need to develop services offered every day, 24 hours a day, or we need to innovate, she believes. For the past year and a half, the Old Brewery Mission has been offering a mobile clinic to make its services more accessible.

“It’s a population that is not always easy to help,” says M.^me Fortier. […] In my own teams, when we have someone who is disruptive and often disorganized, we tell him that we need a break and that he can come back tomorrow. On the street [d’un quartier]we can’t do that.”