Ombudsperson report blasts ‘glaringly urgent’ problem at Milton Park

Article content

With numerous resources dedicated to those living on the streets in the Milton Park neighbourhood, no one is in charge or accountable to solve a spiraling humanitarian crisis, the city’s ombudsperson has concluded.

Article content

ombudsperson Nadine Mailloux published a scathing report Wednesday into the situation affecting mostly Inuit and First Nations people living on the streets with dependence issues in the Milton St./ Parc Ave. area.

called Don’t Look the Other Waythe report highlights a “glaringly urgent” problem of access to health care and appropriate services for the community.

The report recounts a series of Band-Aid measures, but no adequate long-term plan to prevent Inuit homelessness or to get those with dependence issues the help they need.

“Stakeholders … operate within state or community structures that can be difficult to reconcile, resulting in an accountability vacuum (everyone passes the buck). It is absolutely imperative to learn to improve co-ordination,” Mailloux’s report states.

Article content

The city’s complaints office initiated the report after receiving complaints from area residents about the unsafe situation. They complained about prostitution in alleyways, violent altercations, drug consumption and the littering of needles and empty beer bottles in the area. Dozens occupy sidewalks and the unsafe situation has led to six vehicular collisions in two years, one that resulted in the death of Kitty Kakkinerk, a 44-year-old Inuit woman, and another that resulted in serious injuries.

“Despite (residents’) complaints and interventions by the borough, the citizens have the impression that the situation is getting worse. They say theand have the feeling of not being heard and even sometimes of being judged in their interactions with the borough,” the report states.

Article content

The report makes five recommendations:

Mailloux added that more investigation is needed to get to the heart of the problem.

Article content

“To shed light on the role of health and social services authorities in the Milton Park neighborhood and to examine if they fulfilled their role properly, the Montréal Ombudsman referred this file to the Protecteur du citoyen du Québec, who agreed to open an investigation, ” the report states.

Reacting to the report, Alia Hassan-Cournol, a city councilor and special adviser to Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante for reconciliation issues, said the city is taking a leadership role in the crisis, but is working with a team of actors among community organizations and with the ministry of health and social services.

“We need to work with the province and the health ministry to have culturally adapted services and to have services that will be permanent, and not just as emergency measures,” Hassan-Cournol said in a phone interview.

Article content

Plante asked the province in February to turn all of this past winter’s emergency shelters into permanent spaces so those who are unhoused can have dependable resources, and so that those services can better respond to their needs. Among the temporary measures seeking permanent funding is a hotel located a few blocks away from Milton Park that was converted into a wet shelter. The Hotel des Arts on St-Dominique St. near Sherbrooke St. was taken over by the city this past winter to serve as an emergency shelter, but its long-term future is far from certain.

Despite the stark picture painted by the report, Brett Pineau, the executive director of the Native Friendship of Montreal, said he’s hopeful that things are moving in the right direction. The center set up a mediation team last year between the homeless community and the Montreal police, and that program has secured long-term funding from the city. Pineau is also encouraged by other resources that are being added to deal with the problem, like the Hotel des Arts. However, I have warned progress on this issue will be slow, because it is a multi-pronged and complex problem.

“We recognize and acknowledge everyone’s frustration and we’re frustrated to an extent ourselves,” he said. “It’s going to take a concerted approach by a number of grassroots organizations and community groups and different levels of government, but we see these being addressed in the action plans (by the province and city), so we’re encouraged.”

[email protected]

twitter.com/jasonmagder