Shelter for asylum-seekers opens in Ahuntsic-Cartierville

The City of Montreal continues to search for temporary housing as another shelter for asylum-seekers opened in Ahuntsic-Cartierville on Sunday night.

City-owned Résidence Notre-Dame de la Providence on Grenet St. in Cartierville is the second building the borough has transformed into a shelter. Harout Chitilian, vice-chair of the city’s executive committee and councillor for the borough, said the city is working to create more spaces, but couldn’t provide any other details.

“We can simply confirm that, yes, there is a request to open another space in the city of Montreal,” Chitilian said.

They opened the residence’s doors following a request from the Health and Social Service Ministry, the government body responsible for asylum-seekers, he explained.

The capacity of the building on Grenet St. is 300 people, Chitilian said, but can be pushed to 400 if needed. That number includes the portion of the building being leased to nuns that has been sectioned off. He would not disclose how many asylum-seekers are currently being housed, but said there are “a fair number of occupants inside.”

Chitilian said the last 48 hours were spent preparing the space, which included fixing the building’s plumbing, bringing in beds and separating the shelter from the nuns’ workspace. He said they had graciously embraced the asylum-seekers.

He said the shelter is strictly a temporary solution and they are working to find more appropriate housing while refugee claims are being processed. That process can take up to two months.