Montreal marks its 35th Night of the Homeless

The 35th Night of the Homeless was held across Quebec on Friday to raise public awareness of issues affecting homelessness, at a time when the housing crisis and the problems of cohabitation with this vulnerable population are regularly in the spotlight. cuff.

In Montreal, hundreds of people gathered at Phillips Square, in the heart of the metropolis, to send a message of mutual aid and compassion. They then began a march along Sainte-Catherine Street to finally storm Émilie-Gamelin Park, located a stone’s throw from theUQAM.

A solidarity vigil is to be held there until 1 a.m. in the presence of dozens of organizations to inform the public about the different faces that homelessness can take.

This year, this event, which began in 1989, takes on a special character, at a time when the province is going through an unprecedented social crisisbluntly says one of the organizers, Johanne Cooper.

We are dealing with people who are experiencing a lot of suffering and who are vulnerable, she said, referring to people experiencing homelessness. At some point, as a society, we will have to surround these people and work to improve their quality of life.

According to Ms. Cooper, it is urgent that Quebec tackle this problem which continues to grow, the government having long denied the housing crisis, she deplores.

As a reminder, the number of homeless visible on the streets of Quebec has almost doubled from 2018 to 2022, the Ministry of Health and Social Services reported last year. No less than 10,000 homeless people were recorded, compared to 5,789 four years earlier.

Not to mention that the number of deaths of people experiencing homelessness has tripled in recent years in the province. Data from the Coroner’s Office shows 72 deaths since 2023, compared to around twenty from 2019 to 2022.

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This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more and more people who will find themselves on the streetsinsists Ms. Cooper, who is also general director of Maison Tangente, an accommodation resource intended for young people experiencing homelessness or in difficulty, located in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, in Montreal. Families who will lose their homes will no longer be able to find new housing. It’s like a big funnel, there are lots of people going in and there’s no one who can get out.

The participants stopped in front of the premises of the Cactus Montréal organization, at the corner of Sanguinet Street, where a few speeches were given. The neighborhood has often been talked about for the almost daily cohabitation problems that arise between the homeless and the neighborhood.

“More resources”

Participating in the march, solidarity MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, party spokesperson on homelessness, called for an increase in the number of resources for this vulnerable clientele. What we’re going to need is more social housing, more mental health services, a better social safety net because we see, the number of people on the street is just increasing. The more it increases, the more tension we will have in our neighborhoodshe said alongside his colleague Manon Massé.

Québec solidaire called this week for a transpartisan municipal, provincial and federal summit to be held on the subject of the homelessness crisis in Montreal.

For Benoît Langevin, spokesperson for the official opposition to the City of Montreal on homelessness, Valérie Plante’s team must equip itself with a action plan so that we can make clear requests to Quebec. He also suggests the implementation of dashboards to “constantly update immediate measures while we are doing medium to long term projects such as social housing”.

What are we talking about public consultations to learn? We know the solutions, we need funds, investmentshe insists.

With information from Marie-Josée Paquette-Comeau