Coderre promises to help save homeless shelter
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre has offered to help save a westdowntown shelter that serves the city ’s homeless Inuit, the Montreal Gazette has learned.
Coderre’s spokesperson said Friday that the mayor was “worried” when he learned that the Open Door might be forced to close by the end of July. The church that housed the shelter is being sold and with less than two months remaining on The Open Door’s lease, the search for a new location hasn’t yielded any promising leads.
The city’s indigenous leaders say losing the shelter could deal a considerable blow to the hundreds of Montreal Inuit who live in poverty. But Coderre’s office will reportedly help the shelter find a new home in the neighbourhood.
“We’re following the situation closely ... in hopes of finding a new location quickly,” said MarcAndré Gosselin, the mayor’s press attaché. “We’re on the file ... the shelter is a crucial part of maintaining social cohesion in (westdowntown).”
Friday’s announcement came just hours after one of the city’s most outspoken indigenous leaders said she would host a rally for the shelter on Sunday.
“The Open Door doesn’t turn anyone away so they tend to get people who aren’t welcome at other shelters. These are vulnerable people and if they don’t have a place to go you’re putting them in a dangerous spot,” said Nakuset, the director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal.
“The Open Door is a safe place for them whether they’re in a crisis or they just want to take a nap, eat a warm meal or get off the street for a few hours.”
Nakuset created a Facebook event Friday, inviting people to meet at Cabot Square Sunday at 1 p.m. to show support for the shelter. For years, Nakuset has worked with police, the Ville Marie borough and the federal government to make west-downtown safer for indigenous women.
Over 40 per cent of The Open Door’s clients are Inuit — many of whom were forced out of Quebec’s north because of overcrowded housing conditions, high crime rates and few job opportunities.
But the city can also be an unwelcoming place for those seeking refuge.
Some landlords refuse to rent to Inuit families and many have told the Montreal Gazette they experience discrimination on the job market.
When these people fall on hard times, they turn to The Open Door. In March, an indigenous woman went to the shelter after she’d been sexually assaulted. It was only once she found the safety of a familiar place that the victim was ready to call police.
“If the shelter closes, you’re putting a lot of these people back on the street,” said David Chapman, acting director of The Open Door. “If they’re on the street, they’re not getting the help they need. You can’t just push these people further into the shadows and hope the problem will go away. That just makes things worse.”
There are roughly 1,500 Inuit living in the city and about a third of them are either living below the poverty line or homeless, according to the Makivik Corporation — an Inuit economic development organization.
Makivik is also working with Chapman to keep the shelter alive, according to spokesperson Donat Savoie.
Through services at The Open Door, many Inuit have managed to find sobriety, to return to their families in the north or simply to find a person willing to sit and listen to them. Some even spend Christmas morning at the shelter — where they open gifts and watch movies with the volunteers who act as a surrogate family.
Because so much of the city’s homeless Inuit population frequents Cabot Square in westdowntown, Chapman says it’s crucial that a new location be in the neighbourhood or in nearby Westmount.
After a Jan. 24 meeting with Coderre, Nakuset presented the mayor with a list of needs for the city’s aboriginal residents — one of which was the re-location of The Open Door near Cabot Square.
It’s unclear how much influence Coderre has on the situation given that The Open Door is located in Westmount. In an earlier interview with the Gazette, Coderre vowed to fight for indigenous rights in the city and said his party would even run an aboriginal candidate during the 2017 municipal elections.
Nakuset says the city’s indigenous community needs the mayor and city councillors in Westmount to do the right thing.
“I feel like a catastrophe has to happen in order to get the politicians proactive in implementing solutions,” she said. “And that is sad. It’s Montreal’s 375th anniversary, this is supposed to be the year of reconciliation.”
The city of Westmount did not return the Gazette’s phone calls earlier this week.