Montreal will try to fix what's going wrong in the Village neighbourhood

Montreal says it has a way to helpbusinesses, residents andvulnerable people in the Village neighbourhood, just east of downtown,get along.

The neighbourhoodknown for its night life has been in the spotlight lately becauseseveral business owners along Ste-Catherine Street decided to close their terrassesdue to safety concerns.

Since the pandemic, people who live and work in the Village say there's been an influx of people hanging out on the streets, often with addictions and mental illness.

The owner of Yamato Dumpling Emily Yu says she understands why patrons are uncomfortable.

"When people pass by here and see people asking for money, asking for cigarettes, they don't want to come here anymore," she said.

Many vulnerable people made their way to the neighbourhood after Htel Place Dupuiswas turned into a homeless shelterduring the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was the thing to do but it's evident that it added additional pressure on the neighbourhood," said Mayor Valrie Plante during a news conference Thursday.

Plante says security will be at the centre of the city's plan for the Village.

The plan will see40 police officers added to patrols in the area, a measure welcomed by Yu but scrutinized by others like resident Michael Savard. He says homophobia has returned to the neighbourhood along with some of the vulnerable people seeking refuge in the Village after the pandemic.

"The community is being torn between helping and feeling unsafe," he said. "I don't think the police is the solution in this case." Instead, Savard, says, the regional health and social services authority should be doing more.

The city's plan would see two outreach workers assigned exclusively to Place milie-Gamelinto provide around-the-clock support to people with mental health and addiction problems.

The city will also create a working committee on the Village that will gather representative from public health and social services, law enforcement, residents, community organizations, businesses and the LGBTQ community, among other actors.

Montreal police have already stepped up their role in the area and arepart of a local "crisis team" set up in February.

Other parts of the mayor'splan are focused on bolstering the Village's identity and boosting the neighbourhood's socioeconomic potential.

"It's about identity. It's about how we want to invest in the streets, also in parks. It's about animation.It's about arts," said Plante."All that, and having a big component of taking care of security."

Montreal Village residents raise neighbourhood safety concerns

12 months ago

Duration 1:25

People in the Montreal Village say they are increasingly worried about the impact of drugs and homelessness in the area just east of the downtown core.

Mayor calls on Quebec government ... again

Plante said during Thursday's announcementthat a big part of the solution tohomelessness in Montreal's Village is better housing options something, she made sure to emphasize, is partly the responsibilityof the provincial government.

"If there would be more investment done by the government of Quebec for social housing that would make a huge difference," she said during a news conference Thursday.

Plantemade similar comments in February when she asked the provincial and federal governments for help to address the challenges in the area.

In a statement, the Housing Ministrysaid it has invested $3.8-billion since 2018 and will invest another $1 billion over the next year to create more housing. It did not specify how much of that will go toward affordable housing that would actually be attainable to those currently experiencing homelessness in Montreal.

Bruno Ferrari, the executive director of Vilavi, a non-profit that works with Montreal's most vulnerable, agrees with Plante, saying that more housing would make it easier for intervention workers to do their jobs and helppeople off the streets.

He also says the city can only do so much when it comes to public health and that it's up to the province to step up and create much needed treatment centres that can deal with the complex challenges that come with drug use in 2023.

"Lately people are using substances that are very much more impactful on people's health and mental health," he said.

Vilaviruns a treatment centre in Terrebonne, about 30 kilometres north of Montreal,andFerrari says the people he sees there show there is a real need for a cohesive strategy when it comes to dealing with addiction in Quebec.

"There's no picture of where we're going together," he says.

The centre offers 42 beds but gets about 1,000 requests a year, Ferrari said.

Plante says resources will also be deployed toother boroughs.

According to Ferrari, showing vulnerable people that they have options is at the heart of successful intervention work.

"If there's no structural answer to bringing this vision or network of solutions together, nobody can do anything," he said. "Everybody does what they can today and tomorrow and that's a little bit what we have here. It's the city patching and saying 'okay we are going to do something,'" he said.

In a statement, Quebec's Health and Social Services Ministry saidit wouldsupport the cityandtake part in the working committee.