The Protecteur du citoyen intervened at a shelter offering emergency accommodation to people experiencing homelessness. The shelter is located in the former Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal.
Intervention
The Protecteur du citoyen's investigation showed that there were several problems, including the fact that:
- The shelter takes in people with special health conditions (reduced mobility, geriatric profile, behavioural problems). However, it does not have the human and material resources for meeting their needs.
- The shelter is run by the Old Brewery Mission and Mission Bon Accueil. The building belongs to the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM). The CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal funds the shelter and coordinates some of the services offered there. However, no formal agreement has been signed between these four bodies specifying their respective responsibilities.
- This situation is creating a great deal of confusion and dissatisfaction. The organizations running the shelter criticize the CIUSSS for not providing the staff required to supervise client populations with more serious needs. For its part, the CIUSSS maintains that this type of shelter is not mandated to provide such supervision. Be that as it may, these client populations are referred to the shelter by various community and public partners.
It should be noted that, at the time of the investigation, the CIUSSS had already taken steps to clarify the shelter's admission criteria and to redirect overly severe cases to more suitable facilities. The CIUSSS has also recently completed a call for proposals to replace the current shelter. The new space, which will have the same number of beds as the former facility, will open no later than Summer 2024. The access mechanism and the respective roles of the various partners involved in the process will be clarified.
Recommendations
The Protecteur du citoyen made five recommendations to the CIUSSS. The main purpose of the recommendations is to:
- Ensure that people admitted to the shelter are properly looked after;
- Prevent vulnerable people from being admitted to an environment that cannot meet their needs;
- Provide for the residents’ relocation to other resources when the shelter closes in July 2024.
All the recommendations were accepted and the Protecteur du citoyen will monitor their implementation closely.
