The number of homeless people with nowhere to go when they are kicked out of the metro at the end of the evening reached an unprecedented number last week, as the cold descended on Montreal.
The Old Brewery Mission shuttle service took no fewer than 80 people home when the Montreal metro closed last Tuesday.
“This is the first time that we have had requests of this magnitude,” says Émilie Fortier, director of emergency services for the organization. We had part of the group that we were able to relocate, but the other part had to relocate alone. We can already see the overflow of resources.”
Émilie Fortier, director of emergency services at the Old Brewery Mission.
Courtesy
This record was recorded while Montreal was experiencing its first period of extreme cold of the season, when the temperature felt dropped to -20°C during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Many homeless people stay in the metro to keep warm in winter, but have to leave when the network closes around 1 a.m., converging on Bonaventure station, where the shuttle picks them up.
On Sunday, the Old Brewery Mission also had to intervene with two homeless people suffering from hypothermia. “It’s something I had never seen in December,” worries Ms. Fortier.
“We’re disturbing!”
Saturday evening around 9 p.m., Le Journal counted 35 homeless people living in Bonaventure station alone. Most of them were relaxing on warm benches, while some smoked crack or chatted among themselves.
“That seems like a lot to me, 35 people,” says Ms. Fortier. There’s something going on.”
“What’s difficult for a homeless person is that everyone tells you that you don’t have the right to be there, even if you say you’re cold. We’re disturbing!” laments Johnny Bussières, a homeless person we met in the station.
Ms. Fortier points out in particular the little time that organizations have to implement their winter resources.
“Again this year, funding for winter measures is from December 1 to March 31. What that means is that when winter arrives, we are still organizing ourselves, rather than having activities stretched out over the whole year.”
A few meters away, Bryson Poirier tried to sleep in vain on a bench. The 40-year-old man has been on the streets for two weeks after losing his home for non-payment of rent.
Bryson Poirier.
Photo Olivier Faucher/Le Journal de Montréal
“There are a lot of people here. I don’t really like it. There are people pissing in the corner, screaming. I stay calm and I don’t do that,” says the musician who collects money by playing the guitar at the entrance to Bonaventure station.
