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In the Milton Parc neighborhood, people who have experienced homelessness are working together to help the community on the streets. In the 2010s, Chris Brown was doing the shopping near Provigo near Provigo at the corner of Milton and Parc. But now, this Scream from Saskatchewan is a street speaker in the neighborhood.
In her experience, the people who live on the streets in Montreal have built a close community. “Everyone knows each other. When you use organizations that are around downtown, such as Projets Autochtones du Québec or the Native Friendship Center, you enter these spaces, and we all know each other by our first name. When there is a death in the community, we recognize the person right away. It hits us hard because of the difficult experiences we've all had,” Chris explains in English.
“As for the Aboriginal population, Inuit, there is a trend among people from the North who disembark from the plane, and they know Montreal through messages and contacts, families and friends, who tell them: “Meet me at Park Avenue, you will see me, you will see me, find out more and you will find me”, says Chris Brown.
For the past few months, Chris has been working for Comm-Un, a community organization that works with street people in Milton Parc. At 3516 Park Avenue, two green doors lead to an “office” on the left, where volunteers, street workers, and homeless people can chat, use a computer, exchange jokes, or get a cigarette. The center also has a small kitchen and a toilet. In the background, there is also a library with a large table where people will sit to work, carve or draw. Exiting through the back door, we find a picnic table and, often, a group smoking cigarettes and chatting.
Comm-Un is the meeting place for a street response team established this year thanks to new funding. The latter is made up of people who, for the most part, were previously homeless in Milton Parc. She patrols Monday to Friday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“We are all known to the community, we are trusted. Instead of having someone from another organization who is not familiar with street life, they are going to be more open to the rest of us,” says Chris.
Remove the Feeling From abroad
Photo: Emelia Fournier
Jonathan Lebire, the founder and director of Comm-Un, was also homeless. As a teenager, he was homeless and then acquired more than 20 years of experience as a street worker. Recognized by everyone who crosses the threshold of Comm-Un, with his long gray hair in a ponytail and a smile on his face, Jonathan is ready to help.
“When you say to someone, 'Stop drinking, get off the street, 'that's what most people think the equation should be. But it makes you not understand that this person has already tried a lot of times, that it does not work, that there are other reasons why they are there. They are humans with a history that goes beyond consumption, beyond the crisis,” Jonathan explains to us in an empty room in Comm-Un, to avoid being disturbed by the demands of his daily life.
He would like the itinerant community of Milton Parc to be able to live in harmony with the larger community in the neighborhood. “The people on the streets in Milton Park, I know that they want to participate, but that they just don't know how. I think it's easier to start here, with our organization,” he said.
He feels that the relationship is now friendlier between neighbours who live and those who haven't lived in two years. “I think we've worked a lot with everyone — the Open Door, other organizations — just to meet and get to know each other, then remove The feeling from abroad, then from polarization,” explains Jonathan, driven by this evolution. “People know each other by name now. It makes a big difference,” he adds.
Spaces to meet
On a Thursday evening in January, Comm-Un hosts an activity in collaboration with Santropol Roulant, a community food center that seeks to create relationships between neighbours. Outside, across from Santropol Roulant, passers-by from Roy Street join homeless people from Milton Parc to listen to their stories and warm themselves by the fire. Inside, soup and hot drinks are offered to everyone.
Around the fire, Junior, a man from Kuujjuaq, shares the joys of hunting and fishing in the North. Then Sam, an Inuk, tells us about his healing journey. He is preparing to go to Waseskun, an Aboriginal treatment center, for a few months. Neighborhood children slide on a snow mound near him, while their parents watch Sim, an Inuk artist, make an ice sculpture.
“The intention is to provide resources, to ensure that everyone is in the same position. Vibe, but really for the people who need it the most,” summarizes Jonathan.
Finding an apartment without losing your community
Back on Park Avenue, Chris tells us about the difficulties he faces when he comes out of homelessness.
He has a home, but with rents constantly rising, he can't afford an apartment closer to his community. “I have an apartment in Lachine, it's social housing, and I can barely make ends meet, even with my two jobs. I work in a coffee shop too. I travel a lot, Lachine is quite far away, groceries are expensive. But I know a lot of organizations where I can find cheaper food, community fridges. You have to make use of the help that is available.”
Even with his financial difficulties, Chris believes that other people can get off the streets. According to him, homelessness “is an issue that we all need to keep in mind.” “By helping each other, we can overcome these challenges. Homelessness is not a dead end for everyone here. It's just an incident along the way. I overcame it, although the road is still a bit bumpy. But at least everything gets better when you take care of your own business and have organizations to help you.”
Chato René Rivas Melara, a Mayan artist, has a tenant experience similar to Chris's. Chato is from El Salvador. He found himself on the streets in the Milton Park neighborhood a few years ago. Although he now has an apartment, he spends most of his time on the Plateau with his chosen family.
“Now I have my own apartment with my dog, it's a very safe place to live, but right now I'm still on the streets. I mean, I have my apartment, but my life is being on the streets and helping these people.”
Chato has moved three times in the last few years because of rising rents. “I live far away, I live in Laval. So it's as if they're moving people from their homes, we're displaced. That's why people in Milton Parc, on Plateau-Mont-Royal, or downtown are on the streets — it's because we have no other options,” says Chato, disappointed.
A space to create
The next day, at the corner of Rachel and Papineau, we meet Chato at the Tlachiuak art studio. A place that he coordinates in order to offer shelter and healing to the homeless community. With the help of Comm-Un, the art studio opened in mid-January in a basement room at Immaculate Conception Parish Church.”Tlachiuak” It means solidarity in the Náhuat language. We are like in union, the oscillation of people and the circle of life”, explains Chato in English.
As he guides us through space, he shows us a table full of hand-made Mayan jewelry, a sculpting station with coffee tables and tools, percussion, a sewing machine, brushes, paint, and other art materials. “Creation is part of the human being. [It allows] to focus, to forget things, bad things and traumatic things, you know, alcohol, or even work. If you work too much in the office, you can make art and you can express yourself,” Chato explains to us in a soft but passionate voice.
Two Inuit artists from Milton Parc, Sim and Nathan, carve soapstone with Andres Hasbun, Chato's friend and co-organizer of the workshop.
Andres started working with Comm-Un just recently. He moved to Montreal in the 2010s and now has a family and a home in Ahuntsic. Before, in El Salvador, Andres was itinerant. “I am also grateful for my difficult past, for my experience. I was on the street too. I've been doing well for 10 years now, so I want to help others,” he said.
Chato and Andres' efforts are appreciated by people in the itinerant community of Milton Parc. “People tell me that they feel better and that they are happy in the space. [...] They say it feels good, it's a caring space,” Chato says with a smile.
Nathan, one of the Inuit sculptors, polishes a small Inukshuk made of soapstone. It is his first visit to the studio. Without interrupting his work, he told me that the studio was “very beautiful.” “I can carve inside, because it's cold outside. I like the space because I can work,” he adds.
By occupying a room in a church, Chato feels that the indigenous community is regaining its place. “That's why I'm trying to create this space. It's to get back to culture, because we never disappeared. We are still here, we make things, in the church, they are nice things to do,” he tells us. For him, occupying a room in a church is a way for indigenous communities to reclaim space in the institution that dispossessed them. “We never forget it, we never disappeared.”
The heart of a community
Through street work, community events, and art, Chris Brown, Jonathan Lebire, and Chato René Rivas Melara are working to improve the lives of homeless people in Milton Parc. Some leave the streets and manage to rebuild their lives, but this street corner, which is trivial for some, remains the heart of their community.
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The Comm-Un Center, located at 3516 Park Avenue, is open Tuesday to Thursday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Atelier Tlachiuak, located at 1801 Rachel Street East, room 5, is open to everyone from Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
To consult Comm-Un events, visit the page Facebook of the organism.
Cash and clothing donations can be sent to Open Door.