City wants to close rooming house
The city wants to close a rooming house in Pointe-aux-Trembles which doesn’t fit any of the official categories. The building used to be a seniors’ residence, but was emptied out in the first wave of Covid and now houses a “difficult and motley crew” that provokes complaints for noise and fighting.
The question remains: where else are these people meant to go? Not everyone fits neatly into bureaucratic categories, but they have to live somewhere, if not on the street.
Ephraim 12:47 on 2021-11-26 Permalink
You need someone with an iron fist to run a rooming house and rules behind it. They often attract a motley crue, but they are needed and if you can throw out those disturbances, you get a place where people who may otherwise be homeless can live well and move up into the working force.
What we need isn’t to close them, but to make special regulations that give the manager the power to run them and the police the right to enforce for that manager. We really need more rooming houses, not less.
thomas 15:21 on 2021-11-26 Permalink
Completely agree on the need for rooming houses in the city. However, getting approval on zoning changes runs up against too much local opposition. Perhaps a solution is for Montreal to change the zoning of the area surrounding the Royalmount project to multi-tenant housing?