They remain in the streets despite the large wave of cold

Benoît Philie

Wednesday, 3 January 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 3 January 2018 01:00

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They sleep in old cars in the city centre, build makeshift shelters with cardboard boxes or keep warm by sticking it against their dog. Many homeless prefer to sleep outside in winter rather than in the shelters of Montreal, even when temperatures are close to -30 degrees Celsius as is the case for over a week. Others simply do not have the choice to improvise a bed somewhere in the city because they are too intoxicated, or refuse to separate themselves from their dog, the entrance of which is prohibited in the majority of shelters. Five homeless have agreed to tell their story to the Newspaper.

Two adults and two dogs share the car

Photo Benoît Philie

Dum and his wife Janice have slept on the back seat of their vehicle almost every night since the beginning of the great cold wave.

Dum and his wife Janice are sleeping few hours per night, to turn in an old car without winter tires they warm up pain and misery with a small propane tank.

“We sleep each of our turn to monitor the flame. Otherwise, it is dangerous. And it lasts just a few hours, ” says Dum, showing the interior of the vehicle, parked in a parking lot on Dorchester street.

Photo Benoît Philie

Janice, homeless

The rear bench seat and two seats in the front are covered with blankets and dog hair.

“We, we sleep behind, and the two dogs in front, and then we keep our coats,” he says.

First winter

The 54 year old man emaciated lives in the street with his wife and two dogs for just a few months and they learn the hard way for their first winter.

They had to leave the aboriginal reserve where they lived, and they decided to go to Montreal with their car a few weeks before the arrival of the frigid weather of the last days.

“It is cold… Really cold. On 31 December, it was worse, but the subway was open all night. This is where we spent the day of the Year, said the homeless. Otherwise, I don’t know what we would have done in the car. We would have frozen. “

Red roof

He tells of having suffered frostbite to the hand in the last few days and now struggling to spend time outside. Among others, it is the reason why the couple spends her days at the shelter, The Open Door, in the church of St Stephen on Dorchester street.

Although Dum and Janice have managed to find the sleep in their car almost every night for the past several days, they planned yesterday to go spend the night at a red Roof, a drop-in emergency heat, that opens its doors when the mercury drops below -20 °C.

“We have no choice. It is too cold now I’m sick, and we have no more money to pay for the propane, ” said Janice.

Out of the question for them to go spend the night in different shelters in Montreal, such as the Old Brewery Mission or the father’s House.

“It looks like it is in prisons. They oversee everything. I don’t like it. I love my freedom to go there. And you can’t bring the dogs no more, ” says Dum.

His dog keeps warm

Photo Benoît Philie

Greg Jones and his dog, Nero live their second winter in the street.

“The best way to spend time in the cold is to spend the most time possible at the hot,” says Greg Jones, laughing.

The man of fifty years is in its second winter in the street with his dog Nero, and he hoped that this would be his last. He was forced to leave the home of his mother, seriously ill, in 2016, for reasons that he prefers to keep it to himself.

“I was put out on the street in December… let’s just say it was a baptism by fire. And this winter, it’s worse, I’m not equipped for that, ” he said, taking his serious. When it is -10 °C, I need to find a place to sleep inside. “

Mr. Jones does not want to go into the various shelters to spend the night, because they do not accept the dogs and he refuses to separate himself from Nero.

In cafes

With the arctic temperatures of the last days, the homeless found shelter in cafés that are open 24 h and shopping centres. “When you do that, you will discover a network of safe places to sleep,” he says.

When it did not have the choice to spend the night outside, he prefers the terraces closed to avoid the wind.

“And my dog is like my cell nuclear energy under the glaze,” he says.

Mr. Jones spends his mornings at the refuge, The Open Door, in the centre of the city, where The Newspaper has encountered. The mission helps the homeless and their pets come to warm up, sleep, and eat during the day.

The cold took away many of his friends

Photo Benoît Philie

Shane Hughes has lost his friend Marc Crainchuk in the month of November. The itinerant was in the habit of sleeping under a viaduct and died in his sleep, possibly of hypothermia. A small memorial has been erected in his honour at the day shelter, The Open Door.

Shane Hughes knows dozens of homeless people who have died of cold over the past few years in Montreal and he too feared to spend a day.

“I lost a good friend last month [November]. There is a death of cold by sleeping under a viaduct, ” he says, still shaken. And now, it is even worse outside. It is really too cold. “

“I have four children. I want to start taking care of myself to be with my family, ” he adds. This is the time to get out of the street and back to the house before it is too late. “

Man of 32 years living on the streets by choice for a year and a half, after released from prison, but in the company of roaming since he was a child.

In restaurants

In the last few days, he found refuge in Mcdonald’s restaurants and Tim Hortons in the city centre of Montreal, where the owners let it rest when it’s too cold outside.

“It is a matter of respect. I’m quiet and I’m leaving at 6 am in the morning “, he says, under his big winter coat.

“In the worst case, I have friends who tell me to come to sleep in them, but I don’t want to disturb them “, he adds.

Mr. Hughes also refuses to spend his nights in the shelters, because he fears the disease and bed bugs.

It makes, however, the mission, The Open Door to the city centre to eat and warm up during the day.

He sleeps in a cardboard box

Photo Benoît Philie

For the past 10 years, Norman has been sleeping outside in summer as in winter.

Norman has spent the last five winters sleeping in a cardboard box in a hidden corner of the city centre.

“I’m a loner. I live outside by choice, lance-t-he from the outset, with pride. I don’t have a social well-being and I’m taking one day at a time. “

He prefers not to reveal the place where he sleeps, to prevent a fly to the location. “Nobody knows I’m here,” he says.

The 50 year old man is not afraid of the great cold of the last days. He has built a small shelter with a cardboard box and this is enough for him to stay warm, ” he said.

“Me at night, I get back in my box, I get back into my sleeping bag, my covered, the cat returns with me, and then I go to sleep,” he says.

The 50 year old man has decided to live as a nomad coming out of the penitentiary in 2007, after spending 16 years in prison. “I steal cars “, loose there.

Now, he earns his living by rummaging around. He wakes up at 2 a.m. in the night to do his tour. “I pick up cans, I’m waiting at the exit of the bar. The world is often overlooked jewels in the battles, ” he said. I love what I do and I lack nothing. “

The homeless do not want to know anything about shelters.

“Today, the missions for the homeless, it no longer exists. It is places for those who have psychiatric problems. They say : ‘sitting, standing, going to eat’, said Norman. I am free and I do what I want. “