Dorval opens its first warming shelter in a trailer

As homelessness continues to grow in suburban communities, Dorval opened a warming shelter for the first time. It’s located near the Dorval terminus, where people were often found sleeping inside.

“Dorval changed in the last couple years, since the pandemic, we’ve seen more and more people on the streets,” said Tania Charron, Executive Director of Action Jeunesse de l’Ouest de l’Ile (AJOI), a group of outreach workers serving the West Island partnering with the city to run the shelter.

“We will be able to welcome 10 people at a time from 4 p.m. until 8 a.m.,” she said. “We will offer, beverages, snacks.”

The warming shelter is set up in a trailer. There are no beds, but there are chairs, toilets, and two social workers on site each night.

Mayor Marc Doret says homelessness is a recent phenomenon in his community.

“Now with rents the way they are, you’re one major incident or accident away to maybe being homeless for some people, that’s how critical it is,” he said.

Dorval estimates as many as 15 people are living on the city’s streets.

Some suburban communities in the Montreal area have had encampments pop up, and Saint-Laurent also recently opened a warming shelter.

“When I speak to my fellow mayors across the country, it’s the same problem,” he said. “It’s northern parts of the country, it’s in the prairies. It’s everywhere, in big communities, small communities.”

Charron says, there simply aren’t enough beds available in shelters in the Greater Montreal area.

“Homelessness in the West Island is real,” she said. “For example, at the Ricochet shelter, we’re refusing hundreds of people at the door every week.”

While it’s only a temporary measure, that will run until the end of March, Doret says he hopes it will save lives by keeping people from freezing outside, while also giving social workers a chance to set them up with resources.

“The important thing is, if we can try to get someone back into this system, that’s really what we’re trying to do. You know, you fall off and into this abyss and then what do you have? You have no support.”