“He died alone in the cold”

Nelson Ouellette was found dead on a sidewalk in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Tuesday morning, in front of a supermarket, in the place where he had spent his days and nights for several years.

“He was lying on the sidewalk. People probably thought he was sleeping,” testifies with emotion Lucie Brunette, a resident of the neighborhood, who knew him and tried to help him for several years.

“But he died alone in the cold,” she continues.

According to Lucie Brunette, the 62-year-old man had already lived in a tent along Notre-Dame Street. But since the authorities dismantled the encampment, which grew in 2021, he had been sleeping outside.

The itinerant had also lost toes due to frostbite. He had also developed lung problems, exacerbated by his difficult living conditions.

“This is what happens when you leave people on the street!” Nelson said he didn’t want help, but at a certain point, we still have to offer services to these people,” protests Mr.^me Brunette, who wants to organize a fundraiser to pay for the funeral of someone who was well known in the neighborhood.

Nelson Ouellette’s name is added to a growing list of homeless people who have died in tragic circumstances.

Frozen to death

Three years after the frozen body of Raphaël André was found in a chemical toilet in Plateau-Mont-Royal, alerting public opinion to the lack of resources in homelessness, the number of homeless people dying has exploded. And most disappear with the greatest indifference.

The Coroner’s Office has recorded no less than 72 deaths of homeless people in Quebec in 2023, compared to only around twenty per year from 2019 to 2021. Over the last five years, there have been 180 in total (including partial data for 2024), for which The Press obtained the reports.

Everywhere in Quebec

Over the past two years, half of the homeless people whose deaths were the subject of a coroner’s report lost their lives in Montreal. A sign that the phenomenon of homelessness has spread in the province: no less than 30 other cities in Quebec have recorded at least one death of a homeless person since 2022, such as Gatineau (10), Sherbrooke (5) , or small municipalities like Saint-Germain-de-Grantham, Brownsburg-Chatham, Val-des-Monts or Saint-Donat.

This portrait is, however, incomplete, since the death of a homeless person does not systematically give rise to a coroner’s report. And the reports do not always mention the fact that the person did not have a fixed address, confirms a spokesperson for the Coroner’s Office.

The death of Raphaël André, an itinerant Innu, nevertheless provoked, last June, a public inquiry by the coroner to examine the circumstances of his death, in particular his homeless situation and the lack of resources for people living on the street.

The tip of the iceberg

The Resilience organization, which manages a day center very popular with homeless Indigenous and Inuit people, held a ceremony last summer in memory of 35 of its “clients” who have died since 2021. Photos of the deceased adorn three walls of the organization’s premises, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest.

However, only one of these deaths was the subject of a coroner’s report, according to what The Press observed, which confirms one thing: the deaths of many homeless people go under the radar. And no other government entity lists the number of deaths among the homeless, which constitutes a serious gap, according to community stakeholders, who note the greater vulnerability of their clientele and deplore that society turns a blind eye to the current crisis.

“Other provinces track homeless deaths, but not Quebec,” points out David Chapman, general director of Resilience.

“Because if the government had the information, it would be responsible to act on this,” he adds ironically.

Why are there more deaths among the homeless population? Because of drug overdoses, untreated health problems, the despair that drives suicide and the housing crisis, which puts more and more people on the street, say community workers.

Solitude

A detailed analysis of deaths over the past year shows that the majority of them occurred outdoors: on a park bench, on a sidewalk, in an alley or an empty lot. Two were found in the tent where they were staying.

Many homeless people (11) also died at the home of an acquaintance where they were temporarily housed. Nine suffered illness or ended their lives while in a shelter or rooming house.

Eight collapsed in businesses, while they were seated in a restaurant or in the toilets.

Proof of the immense solitude in which many homeless people live, the date of death is “presumed” in a quarter of cases, the coroner’s investigation not having been able to determine it precisely. The bodies were often discovered several days or even weeks after their death.

Especially men

The vast majority of homeless people who have died over the past five years have been men. The Coroner’s Office lists 158 men, compared to 22 women.

These homeless people were on average 47 years old, reveal data from the Coroner’s Office. This is significantly below the average life expectancy in Quebec, which stands at 82 years. The youngest homeless person to have died in 2023 was only 18 years old.

This increase in deaths could explain part of the increase in mortality observed among those under 50 in Quebec.

David Chapman laments that these deaths seem to worry no one. “What are these people’s lives worth? he asks. Are they seen as having less value to society? Isn’t just being human enough? »