“Densify does not mean destroying a living space”

A citizen of Victoriaville, Samie St-Arnault, arrested the municipal council on Monday evening about a residential project behind a building in the rue de l’Abbé-Duguay and which would annihilate the space used by its children and those in the neighborhood.

“It comes to seek me,” she said, immediately. I learned with this project to build a building of three homes that I was going to lose the backyard behind my house. “

The resident is not the owner of the building and says he is well aware that having a backyard when you live in housing constitutes “a rare privilege”.

“But it is not just an empty space,” she pleaded. It is a living environment. We find ourselves there every day. Even the other children in the neighborhood who have their own courtyard come to play it. It is a living place, which brings together. “

This space even enabled Samie St-Arnault, mother of two children, to become a foster family to avoid a threatened child from being moved to another city for lack of resources. “I wanted her to stay in her school and her neighborhood,” she told elected officials.

“I had the necessary conditions to become a host family. But without this space, it would have been impossible,” she argued.

Ms. St-Arnault says he fully understands the housing crisis and is absolutely not the kind “not in my court”. “I know that it is necessary to densify and I press this initiative. But densify does not mean destroying a living space of community life, to make disappear a security place for children,” she said.

The citizen, who has worked in social development and health for several years, expresses her disagreement in the face of claims that the residential project does not represent a security and public health issue. “As a professional social worker, I disagree with this assertion. It is a public health issue when it affects quality of life, social ties and stability of families,” she said.

In a context of housing crisis, construction is necessary, it notes. “Yes, you have to build, but accommodation is more than four walls. It is also a living environment. The project such as expected removes a living environment for several families,” she observed.

Samie St-Arnault said she could not attend the consultation assembly in connection with the project, hence his presence at the meeting of the municipal council to ask elected officials to take into account the impacts in their decision and to assess whether this project could not be moved to another land in the district where the social impact would be less.

The project acceptance process is underway, but it is not over, said Mayor Antoine Tardif. Another step is coming. “We have noted your observations. You did well to share them with them, replied the late mayor. It will be discussed by the members of the council.”