Montreal police dismantle part of homeless encampment east of downtown
People were initially given until Nov. 21 to leave, but deadline was extended to today
Montreal police dismantled sections of a homeless encampment on Notre-Dame Street East in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough on Monday.
Last month, Quebec's Transport Ministry (MTQ) issued eviction notices to the people who had been living in tents near Morgan Park. The Quebec government owns the stretch of green space along Notre-Dame where the number of encampments has grown since the start of the pandemic.
The province has cited fire hazards and unsanitary conditions as the reasons to dismantle the encampment.
Initially, the people living there were given until Nov. 21 to leave. That deadline was then extended to today.
In an interview with CBC News, Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher said the operation had been going smoothly.
"There's some resistance, but there's no violence," Dagher told CBC Montreal's Daybreak host Sean Henry.
"When a person is staying exactly where they are for so many months and so many weeks and you ask them to move … for sure, they're not going to be happy."
A spokesperson for the MTQ said just two people were present at the site when the dismantling began on Monday morning.
One of those two people, whom CBC News has agreed not to name because he worries for his safety and privacy, said he felt a crushing sense of loss after many of his possessions were taken away in the encampment cleanup.
He said he would simply set up camp next to the old encampment and that he didn't feel a shelter responded to his needs.
"We want to get out and get an apartment but for that, you have to give us a chance to rebuild who we are," he said.
'A survival situation in an urban environment'
Rhys Buhl, an organizer with Refus Local, a group that has advocated for unhoused campers, spoke to Daybreak while standing at the encampment and watching the operation unfold. She was part of a group of people who showed up to protest the dismantling.
At around 7:40 a.m., she said there were about 50 police officers on site forming a perimeter around the camp. There was at least one loader truck and a garbage truck.
She said she saw officers holding their batons and described their approach as violent.
"These are people that are in a survival situation in an urban environment," she said, adding the city should've provided resources to mitigate those risks.
Buhl said she and her group have been at the site regularly in the last few weeks. She said the campers were doing the best they could with what they had.
"The campers, they all know each other and they help each other out. These are extremely organized people that are able to put themselves into a situation where they have the resources in this encampment that they need to survive."
Guillaume Groleau, who is also with Refus Local, condemned the dismantling.
"These people have no alternative in a context where the shelters are full and emergency winter warming shelters are insufficient to respond to demand," he said.
Nearby shelter full
Jennifer Fakhouri, site co-ordinator at the CAP St-Barnabé shelter on Hochelaga Street, criticized the city for not doing enough to provide housing solutions before clearing the encampment.
Her 170-bed shelter was full on Monday.
"It saddens me to see all of these people pack up their homes," she said. "At least try to find the human decency to try to find them a place to go, or at least offer some sort of a temporary solution."
She said the city needs more shelter spaces and that its emergency warming measures, which see temporary spaces open for people to seek refuge from the cold, are insufficient to respond to the number of people who need somewhere to stay.
Welcome Hall Mission CEO Sam Watts says it's important to avoid "the two extremes" when trying to find a solution for those staying at encampments.
He doesn't believe that outdoor encampments should be given the resources to become safer and sustainable. But he also doesn't like seeing heavy machinery being brought in to dismantle the living space of vulnerable people.
"I think that as a people here in Montreal, we are much more compassionate than that, and we need to seek out and find those solutions," said Watts.
He said with shelters being a "temporary pit stop" and social housing taking years to build, there needs to be creative solutions to help people find permanent housing and protect those at risk of becoming homeless.
Watts said subsidies to help people afford rising rents are part of that solution.
"We've got to keep people who are housed currently, but precariously housed, in their place. Because if they are falling into homelessness, then the entries become more than the exits," he said.
"Our goal is to help people get back in housing as quickly as possible. It's not to run big emergency facilities."
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With files from CBC Montreal's Daybreak, Radio-Canada, Rowan Kennedy and Matthew Lapierre