FAMILY STUCK IN LIMBO
Yvrose gédéus has her family of seven’s belongings stuffed into two cars. the group has been unable to live in their île-bizard home since the flood of spring 2017. two weeks ago, the government said it would stop paying for their hotels. reports
It was past checkout time at the Residence Inn by Marriott on Thursday and Yvrose Gédéus didn’t know where she would spend the night.
The grandmother has been living with her extended family in this or that hotel near ever since record flooding all but destroyed her ÎleBizard home more than a year ago.
Her youngest granddaughter, Anastasia, was born during the floods.
But two weeks ago Gédéus, 63, was told the Quebec government would no longer pay her food bills. Then she was told she would have to leave the hotel.
This, despite the fact that work on her home — where the ceiling is caving in and the entire foundation has to be redone — has not yet begun.
This, despite the fact the family of seven had nowhere to go; their belongings were packed into two cars.
“The government made the decision from one day to the next to cut off our funds for food. Then two weeks ago they said we had to find a house on our own,” Gédéus said. “But no one wants to rent us a house for one or two months ... I paid $240 for one room here last night. But now I have to go.”
By 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the Red Cross, which provides help to victims on behalf of the Quebec Ministry of Public Safety, had informed the family it would after all pay for another nine days in a hotel — until May 19 — to allow them to find a more permanent home.
Unfortunately, by then all the rooms at the Residence Inn near Trudeau International Airport were taken. They were trying the Holiday Inn.
It’s not clear what had changed in those five hours. Carl Boisvert, a spokesperson for the Red Cross, said he couldn’t divulge any details about the particular file, but said the Red Cross simply carries out the ministry’s orders.
The ministry will continue to provide $20 per person per day for housing for victims once they are out of the hotel. That’s $140 per day for Gédéus and her family, or $4,200 per month.
But Gédéus has not been able to find a home to rent. She thought she had found a home in Île-Bizard for $2,200 per month but the landlord wanted six months rent — up front and in cash — and for her to provide a $20,000 lien on her house. She said no.
Then the government found her a house in Île-Perrot, she said. But there’s no public transit there — how would her grandchildren get to school?
According to Public Safety Ministry spokesperson Olivier Cantin, there are 16 families still living in hotels as a result of flooding last spring that left 6,000 property owners dealing with sustained damage.
Cantin wouldn’t say why a decision was taken, then reversed, to not allow Gédéus to stay. Information on particular files is confidential, he said.
“We are here to support people and help them. We normally help people find places to live. I don’t know what’s happening with this family,” Cantin said. “But if people think the decision taken in their file is not fair, they can contact us.”
Part of the problem stems from the scarcity of rental housing in the West Island, where Gédéus’s two 14-year-old grandchildren go to school.
Alema Ziuleva, the executive director of the group Table de quartier sud de l’ouest de l’ile said there’s an acute shortage of community and affordable housing in the West Island.
“It creates a lot of obstacles to any type of individual or family looking for affordable housing,” Ziuleva said. “For a family of seven, it’s even more complicated.”
The proportion of rental housing in the West Island is very small, and shrinking, Ziuleva continued. The proportion of affordable rental housing is practically nonexistent.
“Most of the time we’re hearing stories from people who are not necessarily in crisis due to a natural disaster, but people who lose a job or lose their income after the death of their partner or they get sick or have a hard time meeting needs and have to stop working,” Ziuleva said.
“That’s when people get in touch with us. They want to stay in the West Island; it’s their home and where they were born. But they can’t afford to stay here.”
There is also no emergency housing available on the West Island, unless you’re a victim of domestic abuse or an adult in crisis, said Lindsay Patrick, of the West Island Community Resource Centre.
“The only emergency housing we have is the crisis centre, and it’s not for people with kids,” Patrick said. “We have to send a lot of families downtown.”
Gédéus said her family is certainly in crisis.
“I didn’t think the government would do something like this, not from one day to the next. It really hurts. It’s not easy to live like this, and it’s not just me, it’s the kids who are trailing behind me all day and who refuse to go to school.
“It’s having to move all the time and going back and forth,” Gédéus said — the Marriott was their fourth hotel in a year. “It’s the humiliation and how people speak to us. This is not our fault. Everyone has the right to get help to rebuild and now they want to throw me out. I don’t understand it.”
It’s not easy to live like this, and it’s not just me, it’s the kids who are trailing behind me all day and who refuse to go to school.