Plans for Ahuntsic homeless shelter shelved

Plans for a new emergency homeless shelter in Ahuntstic have been scrapped after pushback from residents who say they were never consulted.

About a hundred residents marched Saturday morning to an empty building on Boulevard Bois de Boulogne where the City of Montreal planned to open a 24-hour emergency homeless shelter.

"They are totally disconnected with the reality of our neighborhood, because we have almost 4,000 kids around this place," Rachel Rakhi, a resident of Ahuntsic said in an interview.

Residents say the plans were made without consultation, and they worry about the impact it could have on children who attend a daycare just a few hundred meters away.

"What we're saying is like, please take the time address our local problems first, and also to make the studies of the impact when you are creating a resource like that, offering to the neighbors," Ahuntsic resident Ana Somarriba said.

The city had planned to buy and convert the building, formerly a palliative care centre, but in the face of public pressure, the current owners have decided not to sell to the city.

The Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough Mayor, Émilie Thuillier, confirmed plans for the shelter have been abandoned.

"The process is over and there is no more discussion for the city to acquire the building."

However, she says there is still a need for a shelter in Ahuntsic and believes it can work.

"We have not so much great images of homeless people because the projects that are working, we don't speak really about in the public space," she said.

"For example, in Ahuntsic we have a day center for the homeless people. Next door is a daycare, and it works from two years, and it works well because people are working together. And it's the same thing that we wanted to do there."

The city is now looking for a new location.