A new patrol to watch over the homeless of Montreal

DARIO AYALA/QMI AGENCY

Sarah Daoust-Braun

Monday, 26 march, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Monday, 26 march, 2018 00:00

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A new patrol is pacing up and down for more than a month the streets of downtown Montreal to listen to, and watch over the homeless, and worth of sandwiches and hugs.

DARIO AYALA/QMI AGENCY

“Smile and have fun. I know that they have need of us this evening with the bad weather “, has advised Al Harrington to her “pack” of eight volunteers, met on Atwater avenue near the old Forum, during the passage of the “24 Hours” on a Tuesday covered in snow.

The “Wolf Pack street patrol” patrol three nights a week on the rue Sainte-Catherine from west to east, from 20 pm to midnight.

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The troop provides food to the homeless, such as biscuits and juice to Steven that quest at the station Peel, or a package of hygiene products to Daniel, who camped on its side at the station Place-des-Arts.

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The volunteers are also there to listen to the most vulnerable, who have to spend the night outside in the cold. “I am happy when I see it happen. These are good people, and it comforts me “, stressed Maria Blacksmith, a woman travelling shouts.

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This willingness to help others has given the sting in the voluntary Shalyna Kolitsidas, 18 years of age, who wishes to work with the inuit people in the north. It is still sometimes shaken by the many scenes of violence that take place in the street. “You see people who do drugs in front of you. You see a lot of women who are in prostitution. “

The city councillor Sterling Downey, well aware of the folder on homelessness, welcomed this new initiative. “I find it awesome. These people build relationships of trust with people experiencing homelessness. It is this bond of trust there that will make a difference. “

A pressing need

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The “Wolf Pack street patrol” was created by Al Harrington, a former worker at the native friendship Centre of Montreal. The latter is inspired by the ” Bear Clan Patrol “, a similar initiative based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to mount his project.

“I’ve been homeless and I am aware of the needs that are pressing,” he confided, wishing to act quickly in a month ago, without necessarily waiting for the funds of the institutions.

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“I spoke with police officers two weeks ago. According to them, homelessness is not going to regress, but rather to increase within the next two years. To hear that a police officer, it’s pretty scary “, he added.

The man in the original ojibwe, who was raised in a family home, sank into alcoholism and the toxicomie to the age of 22 years. “I went to live at my sister’s home in Thunder Bay thinking that it was going to help, but not really. She put me outside in the middle of winter. I didn’t know where to go “, he remembered, living several ups and downs until the age of 28 years.

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Al Harrington has also set up a fundraising campaign on the site YouCaring to raise 4500 $ to buy other sleeping bags, socks, and yoga mats for the homeless who need it.

He caresses the dream that his “pack of wolves” could one day patrol 365 nights a year to watch over those he must leave with sadness behind him.