On the cold morning of January 31, without fanfare, a bailiff delivered an eviction notice to some 200 people living at Résidence Mont-Carmel, a private residence for seniors (RPA) located in the center of city of Montreal, owned for years by the Longpré family.
In the letter from the new administration accompanying the notice of eviction, we learn that the Residence will no longer be a private residence for seniors at the end of July, with the radical consequences of the abandonment of services such as reception, care nurses, security measures as well as the closure of common areas and the dismissal of the majority of the staff…
This unexpected change in the status of the residence causes disbelief, consternation, distress, anger… The unthinkable, just a few days ago, becomes a real nightmare.
However, in a letter from the new manager, Groupe LRM, dated January 10, it was well written: “Through a variety of internal services, our goal is to promote an active lifestyle, respectful of seniors in an environment safe and pleasant”. According to information released by Radio-Canada, the notarial deed of sale would contain a clause where “the buyer undertakes to respect the operation of the building by Résidence Mont-Carmel as a private residence for certified seniors”. Which, scandalously, is not respected by
the new landlord, Henry Zavriyev.
In a profoundly unequal world like ours, the logic of the real estate developer’s profit eclipses the logic of services offered to the 200 residents, two thirds of whom are over 75 years old. Obviously, the landlord’s means greatly exceed those of the tenants. The right to decent and safe housing is here and still being trampled on by the excessive thirst for profit of a real estate investor, whose practices seem to have already made the headlines… Where is the State’s framework in the face of the abusive practices of real estate developers who excel in changing the vocation of housing and in issuing eviction notices?
We, tenants of the Résidence Mont-Carmel, shocked by the violence of this eviction procedure, are determined to fight to shed light on such a way of doing things which affects both the residents and all the staff to whom we are deeply grateful for his attentive, devoted and professional presence for decades.