Secret shantytown in St. Henri?

   Coolopolis received a florid description of a possible shantytown in the heart of St. Henry's.

   Writing to see if you had any idea about the history or origins of this bizarre community based on St Philippe street, between St-Antoine and St-Jacques street?
    The community is situated on a private property that is fenced off along a tree lined section of the street.  The property consists of about 4-5 trailers, some Home Depot type pre-fabricated storage cabins and a bunch of homemade shelters strewn about approximately one half-acre of land.   There is a high fence with some shrubbery around it that prevents you from seeing entirely into it, but the height of most of the trailers and cabins and makeshift shacks connected to it lead me to believe there could be as many as 15-20 people living there at any given time.  

      The community has been there at least 10 years but my guess is that its been there for much longer.  My friends and I first assumed it was some eccentric man's adult treehouse, but the amount of people lurking around there in the summertime leads most of us to believe there is a large group of people living there.

  I honestly don't know how the city hasn't shut them down or fined them or tried to condemn whatever it is they're living in at this point.  It smells TERRIBLE in the summertime and looks nothing like anything I've seen in a major Canadian city.  I can only assume that its low profile on a quiet St Henri street with not much gentrification has made it fly under the radar.

  Readers will recognize the block as the one that sits behind the famous narrow building of St. Hank, which is being transformed into condos.
  The oddball lot in question is the side lot of landlord Richard Belvolto, who is a chatty, sharp and likable real estate agent who gladly answered my questions about the strange happenings on his property.
   He said that a tenant has been living there about a decade and has arranged the side-yard, which he has the right to do as tenant.
   The landlord explained that his property is only a small slice of the larger space, which he believes belongs to the stores on St. J. He knows about the clutter but said that there's nothing otherwise unusual happening on the property as far as he knows.
   He said that the tenant may or may not have been previously contacted by the city about the dense collection of items in the yard.
   I rolled by later and noticed shed alongside the bizarre antenna with a ragged Quebec flag at the top. I couldn't see much beyond that so I can't confirm reports of an independent electricity supply.
   Two men were mucking about, apparently cleaning up the yard when I showed up. One of them gave me a solid stare. .
   I didn't have time (or balls- Chimples) to engage him in a chat about why the sheds were all about because I was late for another appointment. By the way, we have noted that shed living was happening a few feet away in 1945..