Montreal's old Royal Victoria Hospital to be converted to COVID-19 isolation unit for homeless

The old Royal Victoria Hospital on the flank of Mount Royal, whichhas served as a temporary overflow shelter for homeless Montrealersand their pets forthe last two winters,is being converted into a COVID-19 isolation unit for homeless people awaiting testing or those who become infected.

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante said those now staying at the shelter are going to be moved to various locations identified by the city, in collaboration with homeless organizations.

Dr. Mylne Drouin, the director of public health for Montreal, said the Royal Victoria will be repurposed as a place for homeless people to stay while they await test results or once they have been found to be positive but are not so sick that require hospitalization.

Winter is not over yet, and "we cannot afford to leave more people outside in the current situation," said Julie Grenier, an official with the regional health authority, the CIUSSS Centre-Sud-de-l'le-de-Montral.

"There will be about 50 places to begin withbut that will continue to change," Grenier said. "There is capacity for 100, 150 people. They will do what needs to be done to take in the people that need it."

Grenier said the city wants to ensure thatduring the crisis, community organizations have a place to send clients who are possibly infected by the novel coronavirus, so they don't try to isolate them in their own often-crowded facilities.

Montreal is also continuing to offer municipal staff to Moisson Montral, the city's largest food bank, to help maintain operations during the volunteer shortage.

Plante said the city is also installing public toilets with running water in strategic spotsand sharing the location of those washroomswith local homeless advocacy groups and organizations to ensure people have a cleanplace to use the restroom and to wash. Most will be around the downtown area, she said.

She said Centraide Montreal has offered hygiene products and similar items to help in the "team effort."

"Things are changing. We need to adapt," she said.

Homeless advocates applaud city's plan

Sam Watts, the CEO of Welcome Hall Mission, said Montreal's plan is a "very good idea."

"We have got to look at this as not just a health issue among the homeless population. It's a health issue for Montreal," he said on CBC Montreal'sLet's Go on Friday.

"By dealing with and serving a population that is in need and that'svulnerable, we're actually going to be serving the whole city."

At centres like Welcome Hall, Watts said, thehomeless, who often have underlying illnesses, are in close proximity to one another. He saidthere have been extensive efforts to keep people safe.

There are some 700 people in Montreal who seek shelter each night, he said.Staff at all the shelters will be trained in how to recognize symptoms of COVID-19, and people who may be infectedwill be transported to the old Royal Vic, tested thereand monitored.

If they test positive, other protocols will be in place. If need be, they will be transferred to hospital. Some details are still being worked out as the situation evolves, Wattssaid.

Welcome Hall, which provides meals, groceries and a range of social services to about 600 people a day, has been scaling back on interactions with its clients all week, shutting down some services which are critical to the city's poor and homeless.

Another Montreal shelter, the Old Brewery Mission, has already closed itswarming station, and St. Michael's Mission has shutdown a range of services, such as itsinternet caf.

"This is a social issue. Not simply a homeless issue," said MatthewPearce, the Old Brewery Mission's executive director.

"If the virus ever finds itself in a shelter, unless we have recourselike this quarantine centre, the risk of propagation and spreading it's almost unstoppable."