Raking the subways with Mme Navette to offer shelter to

Raking the subways with “Mme Navette” to offer shelter to the homeless

In Montreal, the journalist Louis-Philippe Messier is mainly on the run, with his office in his backpack, looking for fascinating topics and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all areas of life in this city chronicle.

She is sometimes nicknamed “M.Me Navette”, but some call her “Mama” or “Aunt” out of affection.

• Also read: Extreme cold in Montreal: no beggars in the village

Yolette Jean is barely 5 feet tall. Her smile shines brightly when she’s in a good mood… But her gaze can turn angry when disrespected, intimidating those stronger than her.

“My clients are capable of sudden mood swings,” says the 64-year-old practitioner.

“Because of psychiatric reasons or because of drugs, someone who’s been nice to me for years can suddenly have a seizure.”

Yolette is an employee of the Old Brewery Mission and has been running the shuttle called Solidaribus, which takes homeless people to emergency shelters, for the past seven years.

The shuttle took this woman back from downtown to an emergency shelter in Hochelaga, where she had driven to an already full resource.

Photo Louis Philippe Messier

The shuttle took this woman back from downtown to an emergency shelter in Hochelaga, where she had driven to an already full resource.

Its surveillance round includes stations Atwater, Bonaventure and Berri-UQAM.

“I’ll see if there are people who need a bed for the night.”

Ms. Navette then leads them to where there is space.

“I become a bodyguard when a user is aggressive,” Jean-Pierre Kamgang, the driver, tells me.

With his fur hat, Jean-Pierre is reminiscent of the character of Dick Hallorann driving the snowmobile in the film The Shining.

The driver of the Solidaribus shuttle, Jean-Pierre Kamgang

Photo Louis Philippe Messier

The driver of the Solidaribus shuttle, Jean-Pierre Kamgang

Gruesome

As I walk down a murky concrete staircase from Bonaventure Station, I ask Yolette if she gets scared sometimes.

“Of course I’m scared sometimes… There are scary places on the subway!” she replies.

A man surrounded by empty cans snores on a bench. No question of waking him up: “It might upset him, so let’s come back,” Yolette said.

“I put on a pair of pants and sit in Victoria Square while I’m awake waiting for the subway to reopen,” says Jean-Bertrand, 52.

“So my nights are always asleep at 5am.”

Yolette persuades Jean-Bertrand to follow her.

The welcome is warm at the shelter opened by the City of Montreal in a former YMCA for the extreme cold.

“If people don’t want to sleep here, you can tell them they can come here just to have dry stockings,” suggests Yolette Luigi Prato, who runs the center.

“Once here, they don’t want to go out and stay the night.”

The director of an emergency shelter, Luigi Prato (left), greets Jean-Pierre, who wanted to spend the night before Yolette's visit outdoors.

Photo Louis Philippe Messier

The director of an emergency shelter, Luigi Prato (left), greets Jean-Pierre, who wanted to spend the night before Yolette’s visit outdoors.

Several of those Yolande spoke to said they rented a hotel room: “They got their welfare check three days ago, so use it.”

So if the current extreme cold had happened on February 13 or 23, it would have been a different story: the shelters might have overflowed.

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