May 19, 2004

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MONTREAL, QUEBEC — Twenty-eight organizations in Montreal are receiving more than $5 million to carry out 44 projects designed to alleviate homelessness. The Honourable Liza Frulla, Minister of Social Development and MP for Verdun–Saint-Henri–Saint-Paul–Pointe Saint-Charles made the announcement today on behalf of the Honourable Claudette Bradshaw, Minister of Labour and Minister responsible for Homelessness. The funding is being provided under the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI), one of the components of the Government of Canada's National Homelessness Initiative (NHI).

“The Government of Canada is committed to working in partnership to help people who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. The funding of these community projects in Montreal reaffirms this commitment,” stated Minister Frulla. “Many people will be able to receive the support necessary to achieve greater independence and a better quality of life.”

The contribution announced today helps organizations provide essential services to people in need. The attached backgrounder lists the projects that have been approved. In addition to Government of Canada funding, some projects will receive funding from the Quebec Government, para-public agencies, municipal and community based organizations.

“I am delighted to say that our efforts are producing results. Since the federal initiative was launched, some 160 projects have been approved in Montreal, representing an investment of more than $38 million,” added Minister Frulla.

In July 2003, the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec signed an agreement of cooperation regarding the SCPI and the Regional Homelessness Fund. This agreement respects the jurisdictions, policies and priorities of both governments with regard to homelessness. A joint management committee oversees the coordination of this agreement and is supported in its work by an advisory committee composed of representatives from both levels of government and from community organizations.

"The funding we are providing reaffirms the Government of Canada's commitment to work with community groups, the private sector and the various levels of government in order to find effective community solutions to homelessness," stated Minister Bradshaw.

The Government of Canada launched the NHI in December 1999 to support communities' efforts to alleviate homelessness. Between 1999 and 2006, the Government of Canada will have spent $1.15 billion on its commitment to fight homelessness. Since the inception of the NHI, the Government of Canada has invested over $80 million in more than 450 projects to reduce homelessness in Quebec. Funding for this Initiative is provided for in the March 2004 budget.

Since December 1999, communities across Canada have undertaken over 1,800 projects, funded wholly or in part by the NHI. These projects will result in: The addition of approximately 8,000 permanent beds in shelters, and transitional and supportive housing. The construction, renovation and improvement of over 1,000 facilities such as shelters, food banks, soup kitchens and drop-in centres. The transfer of 50 properties, worth $9.2 million and approved under the NHI’s Surplus Federal Real Property for Homelessness Initiative, to establish 214 transitional affordable housing units. In addition to Government of Canada investments, the partnerships have leveraged substantial resources, valued at more than a half billion dollars, for the implementation of homelessness projects in Canada.

For more information on the Government of Canada’s NHI, please visit our Web site at: http://www.homelessness.gc.ca/.

Carrefour d’alimentation et de partage Saint-Barnabé – $1,347,485 This organization has been offering intervention services in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood since 1991. It improves the mental and physical health of the area’s population mainly in relation to food and isolation. It also runs a second-hand clothing store and a food bank. Lastly, it prepares frozen meals and organizes prevention activities. The funding will be used to purchase and renovate a church and its rectory. The church will house the sponsor and some neighbourhood organizations, whereas the rectory will be transformed into 10 supervised-housing units.

L’Avenue inc. – $555,808 L’Avenue inc. is an organization that offers supportive permanent and transitional housing and community support services to youth who are facing various problems. The funding will be used in part to buy land and to build low-cost housing in order to enable 28 people who are at risk of becoming homeless to improve their living conditions. The rest of the funding will go towards intervention, as well as maintenance and repair costs of the buildings.

Les Oeuvres de la Maison du Père – $357,195 This organization has been operating for 34 years. In addition to providing room and board to homeless people, it offers them treatment for problems such as drug addiction and alcoholism. The funding will be used to buy furniture, equipment for the dining hall and common services areas and computer equipment. In addition, these funds will be used to purchase intervention material that meets the specific needs of the social integration service.

Dîners-rencontres St-Louis-de-Gonzague – 4 projects Dîners-rencontres St-Louis-de-Gonzague is a community organization that provides meals and support to young adults in the area who are destitute or homeless.

Project 1 – $292,390 This project is designed to give street youth the opportunity to run a café and to develop an activities program for the clients. It will enable them to improve their employability, to acquire new knowledge and to break the cycle of poverty. The funding will be used to hire a project supervisor and eight employees.

Project 2 – $80,000 The funding will be used to hire a co-ordinator whose main duties will be to improve services for young people and facilitate partnerships.

Project 3 – $20,300 The funding will be used to purchase equipment for the organization and furniture for the clients.

Project 4 – 6 250 $ The funding will be used to make known the results of an innovative measure to provide services to young, marginalized adults, so as to influence the organizations involved and ultimately reduce the morbidity and mortality rates in this segment of the population.

Projet d’intervention auprès des mineurs prostitués “P.I.A.M.P.” – $180,040 The organization provides help to young boys and girls who live off prostitution, in the form of community support and street work. The funds will be used to set up a mechanism for co-operation and negotiation between street youth, youth protection workers, the police, elected officials and storekeepers on the issues related to young street people in urban spaces.

Refuge des jeunes de Montréal – 3 projects The organization helps young men aged 17 to 24 who are homeless and in trouble. The Refuge focuses on integrating young people and improving their living conditions.

Project 1 – $173,330 The goal is to consolidate the 12 housing units with community support. The funding will be used to defray the costs associated with running the shelter service and the related expenses.

Project 2 – $93,220 The project’s funding will be used to finance a research project that will collect data on the paths that the lives young homeless men take. The goal is to improve society’s understanding of homelessness and strengthen partnerships between organizations.

Projet 3 – 35 000 $ The funding will be used to help renovate the premises and improve the shelter.

La Maison des Amis du Plateau Mont-Royal inc. - $158,746 La Maison des Amis du Plateau Mont-Royal is a drop-in centre that provides front line, support and referral services to society’s destitute. The funds will be used to replace furniture and office and kitchen equipment, and to purchase a truck.

Plein Milieu – $158,390 The organization offers interventions by street workers and encourages young adults between the ages of 16 and 35 who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless to play an active role in developing their self-sufficiency. The funding will be used to support and consolidate the continuity of the interventions and the activities developed by the streetworkers; it will also make organizational restructuring possible.

Centre d’amitié autochtone de Montréal (CAAM) – $146,764 The CAAM’s mission is to promote, develop and improve the quality of life of Aboriginal people living in Montreal. Funding for Urban Aboriginal Homelessness will be used to create a street patrol, which will make contact with homeless Aboriginal people who are currently out of reach, providing them with food, counselling and, if necessary, transportation to existing shelters. The budget will go mainly toward hiring and training two street patrollers and one co-ordinator. The purpose of this project is to break the homelessness cycle, stabilize the living conditions of homeless Aboriginal people, and establish ties between the CAAM and other organizations that offer services to the homeless.

Institut de recherche du Centre universitaire de santé McGill – 2 projects L’Institut de recherche du Centre universitaire de santé McGill provides patients with care that is based on the latest health information and helps to further the acquisition of information.

Project 1 – $136,575 The funding will be used to implement a media communications project to prevent street youth in Greater Montreal from starting to use injection drugs.

Project 2 – $47,918 The purpose of this project is to increase the information that teenaged girls living on the streets have about pregnancy and contraception. The funding will be used to pay for a facilitator, a research officer, an assistant, a nurse and a secretary. The funding will also be used to cover administrative costs.

Stella, l’Amie de Maimie (Montréal) – $124,000 The organization offers activities to improve the living conditions of women who work in the sex trade. This funding will be used to maintain the jobs of two street workers who will establish relationships of trust with women who work in the sex trade in order to provide support and assistance to them. Women, transvestites and transsexuals working in the sex trade, whose living situations are insecure, will benefit from the project’s activities.

Cactus Montréal –$103,500 The organization provides a needle exchange service for injection drug users. It has created a team of street workers, as well as the Relais Méthadone project, which is a low threshold methadone program. Cactus Montréal also manages two organizations that provide complementary services. The funding will be used to finance professional development activities, purchase a computer, enable each of the six current social workers to work an additional 4 hours per week, hire two more social workers for 21 hours per week, put on a play, and organize activities that raise awareness of the problems facing street youth.

Hébergement jeunesse Le Tournant (Montreal) – 2 projects In operation for almost thirty years, Hébergement jeunesse Le Tournant is a shelter for young people that promotes the social integration of homeless youth aged 18 to 29 by temporarily meeting their basic needs (food and shelter) and through psychosocial support and community action.

Project 1 – $98,000 The funding will be used to consolidate intervention services for transitional housing, make a few housing improvements, hire a caseworker, and purchase standard equipment.

Project 2 – $80,000 The project’s main goal is to continue strengthening the organization. The funding will be used to defray the costs associated with community initiatives and the related expenses.

Méta d’âme (Montreal) – $90,148 Méta d’âme is a drop-in and support centre for people undergoing methadone treatment and former heroin addicts. The funding will be use to hire a caseworker, build an office space for consultations, and purchase equipment.

Le groupe communautaire L’Itinéraire (Montreal) – $80,000 The Groupe L’Itinéraire offers intervention and occupational training services to homeless people and drug addicts in four main areas of activity and adapted occupational training: Le Café de rue, production of the magazine l’Itinéraire, distribution of l’Itinéraire, and the computer centre l’Espace Internet. The funding will be used for individual intervention projects that create and support back-to-work activities, promote self-esteem, and encourage more street people to return to working life.

Carrefour Familial Hochelaga – $80,000 Le Carrefour Familial Hochelaga provides supportive housing and can now accommodate seven fathers and their children, who are living in difficulty. It is the only shelter in Montreal that accommodates homeless fathers and their children and provides support to help them retain their parental role. The funding will be used to hire a social worker and to purchase furniture and computer equipment.

Action Séro Zéro – $80,000 This organization develops and coordinates prevention and promotion activities concerning the transmission of HIV in the homosexual and bisexual community in the Montreal region. The organization offers various programs, such as community intervention, health promotion, Internet communication, social marketing and research. The funding will be used to strengthen and develop assistance and referral services through a drop-in centre and outreach work with marginalized young people, more specifically young male prostitutes, and two outreach worker positions will be funded, one full time and one part time.

Groupe d’entraide à l’intention des personnes séropositives, itinérantes et toxicomanes (G. E. I. P. S. I.) – 2 projects This organization actively works to defend and promote the interests of people who are HIV positive, homeless or addicted to drugs. The drop-in centre offers support groups that encourage participants affected by homeless and drug addiction to take control of their own health.

Project 1 – $80,000 The funding will be used to hire a development officer and to cover the costs of developing partnerships that could lead to closer ties with management at correctional facilities and with community organizations, with the aim of offering supervised accommodation.

Project 2 – $5,161 The funding will be used to purchase and install an air exchange system/heat energy saver.

Foyer des jeunes travailleurs et travailleuses de Montréal inc. – 2 projects Le Foyer des jeunes travailleurs et travailleuses de Montréal encourages social integration of young people between the ages of 16 and 25 by helping them enter the workforce and retain a job, and by providing training and promoting independent living.

Project 1 – $80,000 The funding will be used to consolidate and develop the existing services for young people by covering the costs related to intervention.

Projet 2 – 21 625 $ The funding will be used to pay for the renovation of a community kitchen, a recreation room and 10 rooms.

Spectre de rue inc. – $75,000 Spectre de rue inc. is a community organization in downtown Montreal. Its mandate is to prevent and reduce the spread of STDs, HIV/AIDS, various forms of hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases among people who are homeless or marginalized. The funding will be used to carry out the Travail alternatif payé à la journée (TAPAJ) project, which is a job bank that is tailored to the realities of youth under 30 who are marginalized and who frequent the streets. TAPAJ tries to provide solutions to replace other means of survival, such as begging, working as squeegee kids, or prostitution.

La Maison Tangente Inc. (Montreal) – $73,080 La Maison Tangente provides shelter services to young adults who are homeless or who are at risk of becoming homeless, and works closely with them to promote their independence and their well-being, and to help them reintegrate into the community. The funding will be used for follow-up services for youth who leave the shelter to live in an apartment, to ensure that they do not return to the street.

Auberge Madeleine – 5 projects The Auberge Madeleine provides shelter and psycho-social support to homeless women.

Project 1 – $66,659 The funding will be used to help vulnerable women in their many dealings with doctors, lawyers, courts, landlords and immigration officials.

Project 2 – $61,930 This funding will be used for renovations, certain administrative costs, and professional fees.

Project 3 – $27,956 The funding will be used to pay the salary of an employee who will update and improve the organisation’s development and response programming.

Project 4 – $24,159 The funding will be used to hire a caretaker to work 14 hours a week in order to relieve the shelter’s staff of maintenance work, thereby increasing the number of interventions with the clientele.

Project 5 – $21,204 The funding will be used to pay for development activities to update the knowledge and skills of those working with these women.

Le Pas de la rue – 2 projects Le Pas de la rue, an initiative of the Petits Frères des Pauvres, is a drop-in centre for the elderly who are homeless or at great risk of becoming homeless.

Project 1 – $54,645 The funding will be used to hire an administration technician, whose job will be to structure administrative services and accounting, and to train the existing team.

Project 2 – $27,057 The funding will help Le Pas de la rue achieve organizational and functional independence. It will also enable the organization to offer outside activities to those who use its services. The funding will be used to purchase office equipment and to pay the costs related to organizing activities.

Comité social Centre-Sud – $60,000 The organization feeds people in the community and gives those who are destitute a place for artistic creation and cultural activities. The funding will be used to purchase the necessary material for artistic and cultural pursuits. It will also enable the organization to purchase a van, which will allow it to continue activities related to food services and to provide a new emergency service.

Le Bon Dieu dans la rue – $39,000 Le Bon Dieu dans la rue gives spiritual and material support to runaways who live on the street by providing food, medical care and counselling services. The funding will be used to implement a social and educational activity program aimed at young people who are at risk of becoming homeless, in the hopes of encouraging them to take responsibility for their lives.

Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM) – 2 projects RAPSIM is a network of approximately sixty community and institutional organizations who work with homeless people in the Montreal Region.

Project 1 – $23,949 The project’s goal is to computerize the documentation centre in order to better meet users’ needs, as well as the needs of team members who must maintain and update the centre. The funding will be used to hire a librarian and a library technician, to purchase equipment and to cover administrative costs.

Project 2 – $22,987 The purpose of this project is to bring together all the players involved to take stock of what they have learned from working together on homelessness and to identify options for repositioning and strengthening their co-operative efforts.

Dopamine (Montreal) – $18,070 Dopamine works with injection drug users and prostitutes to prevent AIDS, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted diseases. This project will help drug addicts and prostitutes to find meaning in their lives by expressing and developing their creativity through art workshops. The funding will be used to hire a plastic art professional and the necessary material.

Programme intervention et recherche psycauses inc. – 2 projects The organization offers community follow-up services for homeless people with mental health problems.

Project 1 - $1,500 The funding will be used to pay for a two-day workshop on the adverse effects of psychiatric medication.

Project 2 - $1,500 The funding will be used to pay for a one-day workshop on interventions with people with borderline personality.

Total: $5,310,541