Chez Doris to resume weekend hours at downtown day centre

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Chez Doris, which provides services and programs to unhoused and other vulnerable women, will resume weekend hours at its downtown day centre as of Saturday, June 15.

The downtown day centre at 1430 Chomedey St., which has operated on weekdays only since last June, will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and will serve breakfast and lunch.

Last September, a staff shortage forced the day centre to temporarily suspend meal service and to limit clients’ access to caseworkers. It continued to function in a limited capacity and the social service centre on nearby Lambert-Closse St. remained open. The focus was on recruiting and training staff, and the day centre reopened to clients in early December.

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The pandemic was a stressor for everyone, and women who were already vulnerable were particularly affected, Chez Doris executive director Diane Pilote and Béatrice Rock, manager of the day centre and the nearby emergency overnight shelter, said in an interview this week.

The staff at Chez Doris was not trained or equipped to deal with the psychological distress and other serious problems the women were facing, not the least of which was a huge surge in unhoused clients.

Burnout and fatigue took a toll on the staff, by September 2023, the complement had dropped to 42 from 90 in January of that year.

“We had more and more women who needed more and more support and we needed different kinds of staffing,” said Pilote.

What they were looking for were workers experienced in dealing with people with mental health problems, addiction issues and homelessness, said Rock.

As Quebec’s traditional July 1 moving day approaches, the housing crisis is at a critical point, said Pilote, with a shortage of affordable housing and shelters throughout the province operating at capacity. The Chez Doris 24-bed overnight shelter that opened in 2022 is always full, often with 15 dozen women on the waiting list, she said. “There is a need for emergency beds.”

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Staffing is back up to 90 now, said Pilote, and stable. Eight people have been hired and trained to work the weekend shifts, said Rock; about 30 people staff the day centre and the overnight shelter.

In addition to the day centre, the Lambert-Closse location and the overnight shelter, Chez Doris has a residence in the Village neighbourhood and a one on Champlain St. where women live autonomously in studio apartments.

One important post that has been vacant since September is that of a director of fundraising and philanthropy, Pilote said, “and fundraising is of crucial importance.”

The centre is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, except Wednesday, when it closes to clients at 1:30 p.m. About 50 women are on hand for breakfast and 90 for lunch. The majority are unhoused and those who do have a roof over their heads live precariously, Pilote said.

There has been an increase in the number of older clients as well as those who are very young, she said, and asylum seekers. Although many have mental health issues and addiction problems and have experienced trauma or violence, there are also clients who suddenly found themselves unhoused, Pilote said: women who lost their jobs, were evicted and had nowhere to go.

“Madame tout le monde,” she said.

The site of a former hotel on St-Hubert St. purchased in 2023 to provide transitional housing for periods of three to 24 months is expected to be ready by the fall of 2025, Pilote said.

And in May of this year, Chez Doris purchased the Guy St. building that until 2021 housed the Fulford Residence for older women from the not-for-profit corporation that owned it. It will provide community and other services now run out of the Chomedey St. and Lambert-Closse St. spaces and there are plans to renovate the bedrooms to provide transitional housing, reduce their number to about 20 from 38 and add bathrooms and shower space, said Pilote. The opening is planned for 2027.

sschwartz@postmedia.com

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