Chinatown residents near breaking point after spike in crime, homelessness

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Laurence Kayaleh has grown used to the number of unhoused people gathered outside her home on the border of Montreal’s Chinatown, but she reached a tipping point Sunday night.

After taking a taxi home from an evening with friends, several people circled the car outside her building. A woman started banging on it while waving glass bottles around, intoxicated and screaming erratically.

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The driver stayed with Kayaleh for at least 10 minutes as they wondered what to do. When she finally exited, she ran through the group to get inside. She couldn’t fall asleep until 2:30 a.m., shaken by what happened.

“It’s not feasible to live like this in the long term,” Kayaleh, 48, said this week, noting she only took a taxi because she no longer feels safe using the nearby Place-d’Armes métro station at night.

“Obviously, it’s a dramatic situation for them too, and it’s terrible to see,” she added. “But it needs to be managed better somehow, because everyone is suffering right now.”

After raising concerns about a spike in homelessness and public safety issues since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinatown residents now say they feel the situation is increasingly untenable.

There was hope the closing of a temporary shelter for the unhoused in the former YMCA in Complexe Guy-Favreau would alleviate some of the tension, but residents say it’s only continued to escalate in the time since.

A small encampment erected near one of the building’s entrances swells at night, they say, with people screaming and fighting through the early morning. They describe rampant drug use, volatile confrontations and feeling besieged in their homes.

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Most concerning to some who spoke with The Gazette is the proximity to a daycare in the neighbourhood, the CPE Petit Palais on Viger Ave.

Phil Chu, whose five-year-old daughter attends the daycare, said educators recently found a small bag containing what appeared to be drugs in the daycare’s outdoor playground.

On Monday, a nook in the building that has a view into the daycare’s basement was stained with urine and covered in litter. Children could be seen playing inside.

“There are cases of public masturbation. Defecation, urination, the selling and consumption of drugs … this is something the kids are subject to on a daily basis,” Chu said. “The educators are doing their best to shelter them from it, but they’re basically at a loss for words for what to do.”

Brad Misiano said his wife used to drop their two-year-old son off by métro every morning, but stopped after she was chased by a man while exiting the Place-d’Armes station.

She had to run into the busy street to get away from him, Misiano said, and called police once inside the daycare.

“We’re at a point where we’re scared to even come drop our kids off,” he said. “So imagine having to leave them here for the whole day.”

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Contacted for this article, the Montreal police declined an interview request with a representative from the local station to discuss the issue.

In an email response, the police department said it has increased its presence in the neighbourhood and worked closely with community members to find solutions.

Recent efforts have included sending in officers on horseback on four occasions between March and April, and collaborating with the police force’s métro and drug-trafficking squads.

“The current situation is part of a wider context involving complex issues such as homelessness, mental health, drug addiction and the housing crisis,” wrote police spokesperson Mélanie Bergeron.

Among other demands, community associations that work in the neighbourhood are asking for a zero-tolerance approach to bylaw enforcement and calling on the city to improve the lighting on Clark St., to help it feel safer at night.

They have emphasized there is a difference between homelessness, which has always been present to an extent in the neighbourhood, and the increase in drug-related violence, crime and unpredictable behaviour they’re now dealing with.

Several business owners along the neighbourhood’s main strip declined to speak with The Gazette this week.

Bill Wong, a longtime business owner and member of a neighbourhood development group, said many locals fear speaking out over concerns they could be targeted if they do.

As he walked through the area, Wong said most businesses have dealt with vandalism or break-ins in recent years. He stressed everyone understands how complex homelessness is and wants the unhoused to have access to the services they need.

But he feels the status quo isn’t acceptable.

“It’s totally out of control right now,” Wong said.

“We keep thinking about it, asking ourselves: ‘How did we get to this point?’” he added. “But nobody seems to care, especially from the three levels of government.”

jfeith@postmedia.com

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