Montreal moving day cleanup expected to take weeks – Montreal | Globalnews.ca

Mattresses, sofas, garbage bags, items large and small: Montreal’s blue-collar workers will hit the streets for the next few days in the annual post-move cleanup operation.

“We are dealing with a large amount of material on the sidewalk in the street,” said city spokesman Philippe Sabourin.

City crews with bulldozers and dump trucks are busy removing mountains of sidewalk trash left behind by hundreds of newly housed tenants.

The operation consists of collecting some 50,000 tons of garbage. Sabourin said it will take two weeks.

“We need everyone’s help: sort your stuff, bring your materials to the curb only when the time is right, then it will help the city with its cleanup,” Sabourin said.

Sabourin says the city recycles discarded items and invites residents to do the same at one of seven ecocenter drop-off points, and the city’s website serves as a valuable resource for pinpointing the closest one.

Currently, the city says about 200 families remain homeless after move-in day. That’s down from the 600 recorded on July 2.

Thirty-two families are staying in hotels until they find a new home, Sabourin said.

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“We are prepared to deal with the situation,” Sabourin said, stating that the city has a budget of $3.5 million to provide resources such as hotels and places for the storage of their furniture for low-income families.

The Quebec government announced that it will increase a financial assistance program for low-income households starting October 1.

The government also said it would spend $2 million as part of Operation July 1 to help people find housing and provide temporary housing and furniture storage for people who can’t find a place to live.

According to the province’s housing department, more than 8,000 “social and affordable” homes have been built or are under construction since 2018.

The city of Montreal said it is waiting for Quebec and Ottawa to reach a financing agreement that would allow it to build or renovate 6,000 social housing units.

homeless animals

The Montreal SPCA says it is dealing with an influx of abandoned pets, taking in 689 animals in the last three months.

The shelter says all the animals are from tenants who couldn’t find new housing that allowed pets.

The situation was made more difficult this year, the shelter said, due to low vacancy rates, forcing pet owners to make difficult decisions, spokeswoman Anita Kapuscinska said.