Some sixty transitional housing units for homeless women in Montreal will be created within two years by the organization Chez Doris. This new service offer should make it possible to relieve congestion at the night shelter, which welcomes several women struggling with mental health and substance abuse problems near Square Cabot.
“We believe that the transitional residence will relieve the burden on the night shelter, which is currently in high demand, and will thus contribute to reducing female homelessness in Montreal,” summarizes Marina Boulos-Winton, Executive Director of Chez Doris.
On Tuesday, the organization announced the granting of a $7 million grant by the federal government and the City of Montreal for the purchase and renovation of two buildings located on rue Saint-Hubert, between rue Ontario and boulevard de Maisonneuve, in the Ville-Marie borough. This former hotel will be converted into a rooming house that will be able to accommodate 19 homeless women for a period of three months to two years, the time needed for them to “take back control of their lives”.
Thanks to an investment from Québec, residents will also benefit from a rent supplement, which will allow them to pay only 25% of their income for housing.
“There will be staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and probably someone to help with the preparation of food, explains Ms. Boulos-Winton in an interview with the Duty. We will also be offering workshops to encourage women to adopt better lifestyles: teach them how to make a budget, encourage them to obtain psychosocial assistance and work on their consumption problems. We want to give them the tools to make them more independent. »
Three distinct projects
The rooming house on rue Saint-Hubert will probably not welcome women for 12 or 24 months, because of the major work that is necessary. “It’s a building that will need a lot of renovations,” says Ms. Boulos-Winton. It will be necessary to put an extension at the back to include a kitchen, a community space and an elevator. The sprinklers must also be included. The work is valued at more than 10 million dollars, while we have subsidies for 7 million, so the rest will have to be raised from private funds. »
But other options are on the table in the coming months. Indeed, this is not the first project of its kind on which the general manager of Chez Doris is working. In the fall of 2021, she acquired another residence on rue Saint-André, during the first phase of the initiative for the rapid creation of housing (ICRL). About twenty units should be available next May. Then in July, it plans to open 26 other units on Champlain Street.
Until very recently, Chez Doris was a day center offering respite to women experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. During the pandemic, the organization invited homeless women to sleep in a downtown hotel. Then, last fall, Chez Doris opened a night shelter, a stone’s throw from the day centre, located on rue Chomedey. “We are expanding in our mission,” says Ms. Boulos-Winton proudly.