Montreal to open winter trailers at largest encampment

Montreal will set up trailers for residents of its largest homeless encampment to live in this winter, Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada announced Monday.

The city is working with community organization L’Anonyme on the $1.4-million project, The Canadian Press reported. The trailers will include 18 rooms with bunk beds for a total of 36 spots, plus bathrooms, showers and a kitchenette. They will be open 24 hours a day and offer services to people experiencing homelessness.

The emergency shelters, on Notre-Dame Street in the city’s east end, are expected to be running by Dec. 1.

The city counted about 200 tents housing about 180 people at the site in September, and the encampment has continued to grow. The 36 trailer spots would cover roughly one in five of those people.

The announcement follows the city’s February plan to set up encampment “tolerance zones”, which Canada News Media reported at the time.

Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon earmarked $28 million for emergency shelters after being sworn in, and the province was set to unlock emergency homelessness funds last month. On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to end homelessness in Canada within 10 years, a pledge that came with $11.2 billion in the federal budget.

Source: The Canadian Press.

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