Montreal seeks public input on how to live 'harmoniously' with unhoused population

In response to the worsening homelessness situation in Montreal and a rise in complaints from residents, the city wants the public's input on how to live "harmoniously" with the unhoused population. 

At a news conference Tuesday, Mayor Valérie Plante, accompanied by the city's public health director, said the city will mandate the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) to conduct public consultations to find new solutions to the homelessness crisis. 

"We are seeing that more and more residents, parents, families and business owners are concerned about the way resources are planned in their sector and we must do better at predicting the increasing needs," Plante said. 

Serge Lareault, Montreal's commissioner for people experiencing homelessness, said Tuesday that the city has received an influx of complaints in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In that time, he said, resources for those who are unhoused have doubled.

One of the main objectives of the consultation, Lareault said, will be to identify best practices and initiatives to support vulnerable people and promote social cohabitation when setting up new resources and services, especially in boroughs that are not used to this reality.

One of the clearest displays of social malaise can be seen in the rising tensions among Saint-Henri residents and parents over the city's first supervised drug use site, which opened in a building just steps away from an elementary school in April.

When opposition to Maison Benoît Labre's new centre began to swell, local Coun. Craig Sauvé said there is "no perfect place" for sites that help people escape chronic homelessness or deal with addiction.

For Fo Niemi, the drug use site exposed the city's lack of consultation with residents and consideration of the needs of other vulnerable members of the population such as children and seniors. 

"That baffles the mind," said the executive director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

He lives and works in downtown Montreal and has come to know a few unhoused people personally over the years. He's also heard enough from the merchants to know that the consultations have been a long time coming, he says.

"We're not being listened to," he said.

He hopes the public consultations will finally allow residents and merchants to not only be part of the conversation, but the solution as well. 

Residents as well as those who are or who have experienced homelessness are invited to take part in the OCPM's consultations, which will begin in the fall. The office will release a report with recommendations before next summer.

But Niemi says people on both sides of the equation need remedies as quickly as possible.

He said the city's social intervention team, EMMIS, could engage with merchants and their issues more directly. Or, the city could set up financial support to local businesses covering the cost of acts of vandalism against them.

"These issues cannot wait for another six months or another year of public conversations and dialogue," said Niemi. 

More than 800 people on the street

Sam Watts, the CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission, says consulting the public is always a good idea. At the very least, he says, it's an opportunity to educate people on the gravity of homelessness in Montreal and help them understand that "we're facing a crisis."

"[Twenty years ago] we had men, mostly, struggling with alcoholism. Today that's no longer the case," he said referring to the cocktail of dependence and psychological issues unhoused people deal with.

New drugs, on top of the housing crisis and the increasing cost of living have created the "perfect storm," according to Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal's public health director.

Jérémie Lamarche, a community organizer with advocacy group RAPSIM — the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal — says addressing those structural issues driving people toward homeless shelters in the first place is what's ultimately going to change things. 

An estimated 4,690 people are experiencing homelessness in the Montreal region, according to data from the 2022 provincial homeless survey. That's an increase of 33 per cent compared to 2018, but the numbers are likely an underrepresentation of the situation today.

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The City of Montreal has intervened in 460 homeless encampments in the past year. And with warm weather on the way, front-line workers are expecting to see more.

The report found there were about 800 people living outdoors every night. Drouin says that number has increased since 2022, despite the number of homeless shelter beds growing from 900 in 2018 to 1,600 in 2022. 

"It's the tip of the iceberg," she said. 

Public health says it's seeing a mounting number of older people, gender diverse people and women becoming unhoused.

And it says Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, as well as people coming out of youth protection, are overrepresented in the numbers when compared to the demographics of Montreal.