Verdun emergency shelter gets last-minute reprieve thanks to agreement

A impermanent shelter for nan unhoused — nan erstwhile Jardins Gordon seniors residence successful Verdun — was group to adjacent Wednesday to hole for nan building of affordable lodging for seniors.

“Very unfortunate, particularly for nan group that are utilizing those services correct now,” said Marie-Pier Therrien, spokesperson for nan Old Brewery Mission.

But connected Tuesday afternoon, nan metropolis said officials person worked retired an statement to support nan shelter unfastened for different month. According to a spokesperson, much than half nan clients person been relocated to different resources and activity is underway to find alternatives for nan remainder.

Therrien believes it’s bully news since, for weeks, location was interest complete nan destiny of nan 50 clients who moved into nan shelter past fall.

“There’s a batch of uncertainty for a mates of resources astatine this point,” she told Global News. “It’s decidedly putting a batch much unit connected nan large ones for illustration Old Brewery, which is operating astatine afloat capacity.”

According to her, nan caller uncertainty astir nan destiny of nan Verdun clientele is simply a hint to a larger problem.

“Finding abstraction is simply a challenge,” she noted. “We’ve heard successful nan news each nan societal cohabitation issues that person been brought up.”

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The astir caller is guidance to nan opening of a caller shelter successful nan Ahuntsic neighbourhood. As a result, that task has now been shelved. There are reports that nan Verdun residents were to beryllium relocated location but a metropolis spokesperson told Global News that location is nary relationship betwixt nan 2 locations.

Official guidance astatine nan City of Montreal is lambasting nan administration, saying nan last-minute reprieve is impervious of nan city’s mediocre readying successful nan midst of a homelessness crisis. The result, argues guidance leader Saref Salem, is accent and uncertainty.

“If we person a bully way, a bully organization, a bully readying a bully coordination, it won’t beryllium for illustration that,” he reasoned.

Construction of nan affordable lodging units astatine nan erstwhile Jardins Gordon seniors location is expected to statesman astatine nan extremity of nan summer.