Maison Benoît Labre | Montreal and Quebec want to relocate the day center for the homeless

The City of Montreal and the Quebec government want to relocate the Maison Benoît Labre day centre, which welcomes homeless people near an elementary school. But how will they go about it, given that the organization owns its building in the Saint-Henri district?

On Tuesday, the minister responsible for social services, Lionel Carmant, said he was working to relocate the day services offered by the organization. But the institution says it intends to maintain the same services, which have been offered at this location for four months.

The day before, the mayor of the South-West district, Benoit Dorais, had revealed to the municipal council that he had asked Minister Carmant to move the center’s daytime activities to a more “suitable” location, further from the Victor-Rousselot primary school and the adjacent park.

This request does not concern the supervised drug consumption centre offered by Maison Benoît Labre or the 36 studios where former homeless people live.

It is believed that the cohabitation problems are mainly caused by the high number of people at the day centre, where meals, a respite centre and showers are offered.

“However, we expect the City to offer us several alternative sites to avoid a concentration of services,” said the minister’s press attaché, Andréanne Lajoie, Tuesday morning by email.

“Saving lives”

But the director of Maison Benoît Labre, Andréane Desilets, who refused to grant us an interview, does not seem to be preparing to move her services.

“In recent months, we have put several measures in place to limit the effects on the neighbourhood through various measures, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the SPVM, the CIUSSS and the Regional Public Health Department.”

Precisely, when explaining his request for a relocation of services, Benoit Dorais said he had noticed that the measures put in place were not having the desired effect and that the neighbourhood was living in anxiety, especially as the start of the school year approached.

“We note that the issues of cohabitation remain, despite all the efforts that have been made,” also acknowledges Minister Carmant’s press attaché.

How to force a move?

Quebec and Montreal will have a lot to do to dislodge the Maison Benoît Labre, according to the coordinator of the Intersectoral Group of Community Organizations of Montreal (RIOCM), Marie-Andrée Painchaud Mathieu.

“The organization owns the land and the building, it has the right to be there,” she points out. “By what legal means are governments going to force the relocation of a community organization and its services? Neither Quebec nor the City has that power.”

Authorities could provide suitable premises, free or inexpensive, she notes, stressing that this is a long-standing request from community organisations.

“But currently, community groups are forced to invest in private premises, as owners or tenants, which costs us a lot of money. What right do they have to come and evict us? It’s a bit odious,” protests M.^me Painchaud Mathieu. “And when they ask us to go elsewhere, where would that be acceptable and according to what criteria?”

Housing crisis, homelessness crisis, opioid crisis: the RIOCM spokesperson emphasizes that organizations like Maison Benoît Labre offer services to marginalized people who have fallen through the cracks of the social safety net, with government funding granted in dribs and drabs and in difficult working conditions.

In the current situation, “what organization is going to be crazy enough to get involved in social housing or service development?” she asks. The message we are being sent is: figure it out, take risks, but at the slightest opportunity, we will dump you. We are in a political joust in which Benoît Labre is being sacrificed.”

Is the situation improving or not?

According to Marie-Andrée Painchaud Mathieu, the situation is slowly improving around the day centre. “Incivility doesn’t go away overnight, but the organization hasn’t received all the funding it needs either,” she says.

This is not the opinion of a restaurateur, whose establishment is next to Maison Benoît Labre.

“We had two overdoses yesterday in our dining room,” he laments. “We have people screaming, breaking down toilets, doing their business on the floor. They come to debuzz in our restaurant.”

The business owner, who requested anonymity because he is a franchisee of a chain that does not allow him to speak to the media, is worried about his employees, who are often teenagers and young adults. “We can’t ask them to become social workers,” he said. “Our managers are trained in first aid and have already resuscitated someone while waiting for help. But we can’t accept that. We decided to close our dining room at night and only offer drive-thru service, because the situation is out of control right now.”