Hotel Place Dupuis to become shelter
It’s the Hotel Place Dupuis, overlooking Place Émilie-Gamelin, that’s to become a homeless shelter until the end of March. This isn’t the first time the hotel has been commandeered – it was briefly a Covid hospital at the height of the first wave.
Ephraim 09:29 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
This was actually the first hotel that came to mind when they announced they were looking for a hotel. It has a pretty uneven reputation and could use a re-do. A hotel with 4 stars shouldn’t have as many complaints as they had, though a good part were because of the neighbourhood. Ever try walking around that area? You can’t walk more than 10 steps before someone panhandles, The hotel went from Hotel des Gouverneurs to Ascend in November of 2019. The hotel has pretty uneven reputation, though by changing management companies, they did get the previous reviews removed.
The hotel has 347 rooms and 6 suites. So they are only taking over part of the hotel? I wonder if they are going to try to keep the other rooms running… and how would that work? Ascend is part of Choice Hotels, but it’s their only high end property in Montreal.
Bill Binns 10:14 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Oh joy. The Village takes another one for team Montreal. I guess we beat out Outremont and Westmount to attract this valuable new addition to the community.
Of course, this isn’t a home run success yet. This new shelter will have to compete for guests against other new facilities offering such perks as open bars, Pitt Bulls stay free policies and plentiful shopping cart parking.
Going to be interesting to see how this plays out as Place Dupuis has an army of private security that stays very busy trying to keep the local marginalized / victimized population out of it’s building. In the before times, the Place Dupuis food court was one of the few places in the Village where you could get through an entire meal without being pestered by beggars. Now the beggars have their own private entrance to the food court.
Michael Black 10:28 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Nobody seems to want to make a distinction, but some of this is about the nouveau-homeless. They were borderline in terms of finances, lost their jobs due to the Virus, and are now living in tents. They want what they had, which means at least a tent and a “normal” life. They only need a little boost, they haven’t lost so.much that it takes a big effort to get back to where they were.
I don’t think most people have a real understanding of homelessness. They lose everything. They get there through.multiple reasons, and it can get worse because of their situation. So it’s not all “drugs and depression”, for some that comes because of the situation of being homeless.
Homelessness is one of the asymmetries of society. Homeless people have assumed I was homeless, and it’s inclusive. “Authority figures” if they make the same assumption, are doing it to exclude me.
EmilyG 11:58 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Bill Binns, if you don’t like living in the Village, you could always just move.
Myles 12:22 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Every time I see a story about homelessness, I cringe waiting to see what new way Bill Binns will have found to compare human beings to vermin. It never stops being galling to see how far some people can go down the route of dehumanizing others.
Bill Binns 12:26 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
@Emily – We are full time house shopping as much as you can in the current environment. By summer I hope to be complaining about a much nicer neighborhood.
@Myles – The “homeless” dehumanized themselves first.
Meezly 12:52 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Not knowing much about the Montreal hotel scene, and back when it was Hotel des Gouverneurs, I chose it as a budget-minded hotel for wedding guests, thinking it’d be suitable for our still youngish friends. I chose a fancier one on the Sherbrooke strip for family. Oddly my in-laws picked Gouverneurs over the fancy one – it’s not like they couldn’t afford the fancier one. My SIL was appalled by the poly-blend bed sheets.
We also had no idea that Hotel des Gouverneurs hosted an annual Fetish Weekend, which took place the same weekend as our wedding. I remember feeling slightly embarrassed for my Christian cousin & wife who were also staying there and would share the same elevator as the fetish’d out attendees.
Fast forward a dozen years later (give or take). Interesting to see Hotel Place Dupuis make this pivot. The hotel was probably struggling for some time, so to have this opportunity from the city to house the homeless is a good move.
j2 16:58 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Bill Binns: your American is showing.
Kate 17:40 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
Meezly: it’s a comedy setup, the fetish weekend and the Christian relatives.
j2: I was trying to find something to say to BB, but you’ve said it all.
EmilyG 18:27 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
@Bill Binns – That’s good.
I’d suggest you could look for something around my area, but I’m not so sure we want undesirable people in the neighbourhood around here.
Kate 19:23 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
EmilyG: burn!
thomas 19:25 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
I don’t understand why everyone here is applauding the ghettoization of the homeless.
Kate 20:54 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
thomas, there’s a range of opinion here, not everyone is applauding.
But the fact is, evidence shows there are more homeless now than at the start of the pandemic, and they have to go inside somewhere as the weather gets colder. The regular shelters are too densely packed on cold nights, normally, to be safe during a pandemic, so what else can the city do?
thomas 22:34 on 2020-10-28 Permalink
I think it would be far better to triage the residents and distribute them to smaller hotels throughout the city based on their needs and their likely path to finding stable accommodation. I guess this plan is simpler bureaucratically and politicians don’t have to deal with NIMBYists.