Chez Doris, located in

Shaughnessy Village Shaughnessy Village (sometimes referred to as the Concordia Ghetto) is a neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, located on the western side of the Ville-Marie borough. It is bounded by Guy Street to the east, Atwater Street to the west, Sherb ...

on the western side of the Ville Marie borough of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, is a

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that offers a daily daytime shelter for women in need. The shelter provides meals, shelter, clothing, hygiene services, socio-recreational activities, and practical assistance to women in difficulty. The facility is

multi-lingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

; the languages spoken are

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French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, and

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

History

The idea for Chez Doris was formed during a series of conversations between Sheila Baxter and Doris Halfkenny Seale, whom Baxter had been interviewing as part of an effort to interview female

prostitutes Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

to learn about their situations and what they needed. Seale, who was also homeless, responded by stating that it would be good to have “'a place to go without prying eyes and too many questions'”. This later prompted Baxter to create a women's shelter for impoverished women in the Montreal area, seeing as how men in the 1970s had their own shelters, but women did not. Seale was found murdered on

St. Urbain Street Saint Urbain Street (french: rue Saint-Urbain) is a major one-way street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The original, southernmost section of the street was built by Urbain Tessier (c. 1624–1689), a farmer and carpenter who settled in t ...

in Montreal's

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on November 2, 1974, prior to the opening of Chez Doris. The murder remains unsolved. Since its opening in 1977, Chez Doris had struggled to retain its daily upkeep, especially after facing large renovation and maintenance costs in 2016. However, following a $1 million donation in 2018 from retired Montreal businessman

Andrew Harper Andrew Harper (13 November 1844 – 25 November 1936) was a Scottish–Australian biblical scholar, teacher, school principal and University College Principal. Early life Harper was born at 167 Main Street,Glasgow Post Office Directory 1844-5 ...

, Chez Doris is not only able to sustain regular finances, but also expand its services. Chez Doris is located at 1430 Chomedey Street and offers services to upwards of 80 women per day. Following the donation, Chez Doris bought a second building across the street and announced that it will offer a space for the shelter to open an overnight shelter for women. In 2018, Chez Doris announced that it would undertake research on the growing needs of the shelter. As a result, in 2020, the shelter expanded its facilities, including a 22-bed emergency shelter which was funded by the federal government. Another addition was a residence with 26 studio apartments for women living on the streets or who are at risk of homelessness.

Services

Chez Doris provides drop-in services, meals, financial administration and

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

filing assistance, clothing, and hygiene services, including access to washrooms, showers, and haircuts. It operates an

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

assistance program and an

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

housing program.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.chezdoris.org Homelessness in Canada Homeless shelters in Canada Women's_shelters_in_Canada Charities based in Canada Non-profit organizations based in Montreal Organizations established in 1977