A growing number of people experiencing homelessness are taking refuge in Montreal emergency rooms to protect themselves from the freezing cold, according to the metropolis’s health authorities.
Posted at 5:57 p.m.
Joe Bongiorno
The Canadian Press
Pierre Hajek, who has no fixed address, says he went to the emergency room of the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM) five or six times this winter to warm up during the night. He pointed out that he had a stable place to sleep last winter.
“Let’s say there’s no room here and you’re fed up. You are cold […] so you go, you line up like you have something to do with the doctor,” he said Friday inside the Old Brewery Mission, an organization that helps the homeless of the city.
After a warmer-than-normal New Year’s Eve, temperatures in the Montreal region are expected to drop to -16°C over the weekend.
Mr. Hajek explained that he went to the CHUM emergency room, a few blocks from the Old Brewery Mission, to have the chance to warm up rather than consult a doctor for a health problem. “They don’t know I’m there to keep warm, so they treat me like a patient,” he said.
The CHUM has noted an increase in cases like that of Mr. Hajek. “Like many hospitals, the CHUM, and more particularly its emergency staff, is faced with an increase in the number of homeless people during periods of extreme cold,” he said in a press release on Friday.
The Integrated University Health and Social Services Center (CIUSSS) of South-Central Montreal has noted the same trend. He indicated by email that Notre-Dame hospital “like other hospitals in the Montreal region […] faces an increase in the number of homeless people in its emergency services, particularly during periods of extreme cold.
In response to the increase in the number of homeless people in the city’s emergency rooms, the McGill University Health Center and CHUM both said they have deployed more social workers and security personnel to help homeless people and direct them to the services they need.
Marie-Pier Therrien, director of communications for the Old Brewery Mission, said her shelter has noted a “significant increase in recent months” in calls from the CHUM this year regarding homeless people to the emergency room, mainly at night after the closure of metro stations and filling of heat stations.
“What I’ve heard from our teams is mainly that when the metro station closes, when all the other options are full, that’s when emergencies will see an increase, but there is probably also a small portion of people who use them at any time of the day,” she explained, adding that they may be hearing more from the CHUM than in previous years because of the workers newly deployed social networks.
Montreal’s shelters and warmth centers are at maximum capacity, with the mission turning away an average of 50 people each night this winter, leaving many homeless people without a place to go to stay warm.
But, ultimately, providing someone with a temporary roof or a place to warm up for a few hours won’t solve the problem, she said.
“What they want is housing,” said M.me Therrien. This is our wish for 2025. We must have clear trajectories for people who live in public spaces, to help them access housing without going through the traditional emergency shelter system. »
