Homelessness: “the community cannot be alone at the front”, protests RAPSIM

The Support Network for Single and Homeless People of Montreal (RAPSIM) calls on the various levels of government to “stop throwing the ball to each other” and “take concrete actions” for vulnerable people as winter approaches .

Au RAPSIMMaryane Daigle is responsible for the income and poverty file, homelessness of women and people LGBTQ+. On Tuesday, she was sorry for the sad tradition consisting of having the media travel as winter approaches to make the voices of community organizations heard alarmed by the lack of places for people experiencing homelessness.

There are not enough places where we offer warmth, security and a little bit of comfort to this vulnerable population, denounces Ms. Daigle. These people face hostility in public spaces and we prevent people experiencing homelessness from warming themselves in metro stations, in store entrances or in shopping centers.

The speaker of RAPSIM says that both in emergency shelters and in temporary and transitional accommodation, there are not enough places. Resources turn away people on a daily basis, who have nowhere to go. And at the Notre-Dame Street East camp, tents are added every day.

That’s without counting invisible homelessness, made up of people who sleep in their car or on a loved one’s couch. They are at risk of ending up on the street, she said.

How many people find themselves in such precariousness? At the last count, in 2022, there were around 800 people experiencing homelessness in Montreal. Maryane Daigle, however, affirms that this number has continued to increase since.

How many frostbite, amputations and deaths will we face this year?

The community cannot be alone at the front

The RAPSIM protests against the response he sees systematically offered by the authorities when citing the lack of places in shelters: places are funded and are being developedwe answer.

Even by adding a few hundred places in reception areas, affirms Maryane Daigle – specifying in the same breath that the said places would be carried by the community –, too many people will be forced to stay in the cold, in dangerous situations.

Day after day, community organizations operate beyond their capacities, adds Maryane Daigle. They adapt and stretch their usual activities to meet needs and they work hard to respond to calls for projects in the hope of closing their budget.

However, what are the concrete actions of our governments in the face of the crisis? she asks. It is unacceptable in the eyes of RAPSIM that the only emergency plan considered is the opening, by civil security, of heat stations when the mercury drops below 27 degrees Celsius below zero.

Last year, we did not reach these temperatures, recalls Ms. Daigle. However, needless to say, we do not need to reach -27°C to suffer from frostbite or hypothermia, she warns.

The community cannot be alone at the front. He should be a safety net, not a front line.

Population responsibility lies with governments, argues the RAPSIM. During the pandemic, hotels welcomed people for a bitand public health authorities had reached to mobilize staff differently.

Community groups demand governments that they stop throwing the ball at each other.

Our workers are tired. We want actions to be taken and the crisis to be recognized.

The RAPSIM requests in particular from the City of Montreal to accompany the community network in its requests.

The ball is in the governments court

At a press conference on Tuesday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante replied that the City had always demonstrates proactivity in this folder.

Ms. Plante states that she can only agree with this cry from the heart launched by the RAPSIM. What is experienced in Montreal is also experienced in Gatineau, Quebec and in smaller towns, she says.

A rich society like ours cannot accept people dying in the streets.

The City says it is waiting, from Quebec, for details of the intervention plan for homelessness which will be developed for the winter: what amounts will be, what sites could be opened, etc. But these are short-term solutions, deplores Ms. Plante.

The mayor of Montreal also assured that the housing crisis and the crisis of vulnerabilities will find their place in the budget that his administration will publish next week.

In mid-September, François Legault’s government announced the granting of an additional $4.2 million to fight homelessness in Montreal.

For its part, Justin Trudeau’s government announced on September 22 that it was allocating $250 million to address the urgent problem of encampments and homelessness outside shelters. This funding is intended to be matched by the provinces and territories, Ottawa said.

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