A significant increase in homelessness is observed in the MRC of Bécancour, in Centre-du-Québec.
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LaRue Bécancour notes an explosion in the number of people experiencing homelessness.
Last year, the street work organization listed three situations linked to homelessness on the territory of the MRC. In recent months he has accounted for 27.
“900% increase, yes, that’s surprising! After that, we know that there are more and more difficulties in the housing accessibility chain,” comments the clinical coordinator of LaRue Bécancour, Jasmin Désilets.
In addition to its main city, the MRC of Bécancour has around fifteen villages of a few hundred inhabitants. The two street workers who work in this area have observed situations of homelessness not only in larger cities, but also in municipalities like Manseau or Fortierville.
“We often have people who are passing through. We see a lot of homelessness among people who live in their vehicles, in their trailers. Whether because of a fire or other problems. We have camps occasionally. We also know that there are people who have squatted on municipal facilities,” notes Mr. Désilets.
The coordinator relates the difficulties of covering a large territory, when resources are few and financing is difficult.
In addition to recommending people to different organizations in the area, LaRue Bécancour provides them with a community refrigerator, a bathroom and a laundry room.
The number of users of the day center is growing, as is the number of participants for the meal offered there once a week.
No accommodation on the territory
The neighboring MRC, that of Nicolet-Yamaska, makes the same observation: visible homelessness is increasing on its territory. According to the Point de Rue organization, around twenty people are homeless, both in Nicolet and in the smaller villages.
“In the territory, there is no emergency accommodation that is specifically dedicated to people experiencing homelessness. So, it’s certain that it’s a service gap that worries us a lot,” says the assistant general manager for Point de rue Trois-Rivières and Nicolet Pierre-Olivier Gravel.
“As the cold approaches, there are many who are trying to find solutions. There are some who are usually perhaps more reluctant to go to accommodation resources, there, they are more accepting of moving there, because obviously, it also involves uprooting oneself from one’s environment in our case. However, there is a problem with wanting to transport to large centers like Trois-Rivières or Drummondville. “It is that they have already saturated the various accommodations. It’s not always that simple,” says Mr. Gravel.
He hopes that there will soon be solutions put in place to respond to the growth of homelessness in the MRCs, just as there was the addition of a heat stop in Trois-Rivières recently.
Mr. Gravel specifies that a meeting between several partners working in homelessness in Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec is planned for Wednesday.
“That’s going to be the first step. We’ll see if we can target the same priorities for everyone together and deploy a plan accordingly,” he concludes.
