Volunteers and interveners of the CIUSSS of the Capitale-Nationale (CIUSSS-CN) will travel the streets of Quebec on Tuesday evening to quantify people in homelessness. The organization expects a new increase of 8% to 10% between 2024 and 2025, once again proving the urgency to act.
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“If we look at the current trend, we see an increase each year. We have no indicator that shows us that the situation will diminish in this counting, “notes the deputy director, partnerships and roaming of the CIUSSS, Frédéric Keck.
The deputy director, partnerships and roaming at the CIUSSS of the Capitale-Nationale, Frédéric Keck, expects that the number of itinerants in downtown Quebec is climbing around 27% between 2022 and 2025. Stevens Leblanc/Journal de Québec/Agency QMI) Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL OF QUEBEC
About 120 volunteers from the capital will take part in the enumeration of people in homelessness in Quebec, an exercise which takes place simultaneously in 16 regions of the province and which aims to brush a complete portrait of this sad social phenomenon and to determine the needs.
Refresh the data
This collection of information will refresh the latest information available to the Ministry of Health and Social Services, since the last census as complete as that of Tuesday evening dates from several years.
“We can see an increase in everyday life, but the count makes it possible to make it all objective. […] It also allows you to have a fairer portrait of who is on the street to identify the solutions to prioritize, ”continues Mr. Keck.
He mentions that the CIUSSS’s budget to cope with homelessness increased from $ 2.3 million to $ 19.4M in the last ten years, but maintains that “that does not mean that it is sufficient, as the needs are immense”.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL OF QUEBEC
50% more itinerants
During the last count, 927 people in homelessness were counted on the night of October 11, 2022 in Quebec.
It was an increase of 36% compared to the very first exercise of the genre carried out in 2018.
-If we believe the data advanced by the CIUSS compared to the annual increase, it must be noted that the number of people on the street in Quebec could have increased by more than 50% in less than 10 years.
“It is not a reality specific to the region. We observe the same phenomenon everywhere else, ”says Mr. Keck, adding that the Grand Calculation data on Tuesday will be revealed during the year 2026.
A problem that extends
Even if it constitutes the best tool to have a precise image of homelessness, the count has an important dead angle: it does not quantify the other households of roaming in the region, as in Charlevoix or in Portneuf or in the suburbs of Quebec, while the stake is becoming more and more persistent.
“We try to further document the profile of people who come to seek help. […] As there are no specialized services or volume to justify a refuge, for example, you have to see what alternative measures can be implemented, ”concludes Frédéric Keck.
The latest roaming figures in Quebec
*2024 : 870 people counted on the night of April 23
2022: 927 people counted on the night of October 11
2018: 594 people counted on the night of April 24
*The enumeration exercise led by the Ministry of Health and Social Services included only people who were hosted by a local resource and excludes those who slept in the street.
Source: CIUSSS DE LA CAPITAL-NATIONALE
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