Quebec City postpones deadline for ending homelessness again, shares vision for long-term action

After promising to end homelessness in 2025 during the last election campaign and then shifting the target date to 2030 last spring, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand is changing the focus to taking long-term action on getting people housed — without a deadline.

"I'm sorry to say that we will not have ended homelessness by the end of the mandate," said Marchand on Thursday.

"If Finland is working on a 30-year plan, Quebec City will surely need time. But we want to put an end to homelessness," said Marchand.

While the city is no longer sticking to a short-term deadline for making homelessness a thing of the past, it did announce its Vision en matière d'itinérance, a 44-page report that outlines a path to make Quebec City stand out by 2030 "thanks to its collective efforts and sustainability, lasting solutions … to improve the quality of life of its vulnerable citizens."

In 2024, Quebec City will spend an additional $1.5 million to deal with homelessness in the city, bringing its total spending on the issue to $4 million, more than doubling the $1.7 million it spent in 2021.

According to the report, Quebec City will spend the money on strengthening social safety nets, speeding up the process of building more social housing and affordable housing units, and creating more inclusive public spaces and more social opportunities for people experiencing homelessness in their communities.

The city plans to put these measures in place by working more closely with community organizations, public health authorities, businesses, Indigenous communities — all of whom the city says were consulted in putting together its vision.

Marie-Pierre Boucher, a member of the city's executive committee and the person charged with tackling homelessness, said that, unlike in previous years, the city is now working more collaboratively with other institutions and organizations with common goals.

"We were working in silos. This is no longer the case," Boucher said.

Between 2018 and 2022, the number of people who were visibly unhoused in Quebec City increased by 36 per cent, the report says. At the same time, in 2022, the city's vacancy rate of rental units was 1.6 per cent, lower than one per cent for units under $1,000 for rent. As of 2023, the city says there are more than 2,000 people waiting for subsidized housing.

Marchand said the recent summit on homelessness has helped put the issue on the province's agenda, but as far as how much money the city needs from the Coalition Avenir Québec government, the mayor said "it's hard to put a number on it."

First and foremost, people need a roof over their heads, but that is just the start, and there is more to come, said Marchand.

Community groups, opposition leaders welcome 'first step'

Mary-Lee Plante, co-ordinator at RAIIQ, a collection of 40 different groups working to prevent homelessness, said community groups are already working hand in hand with authorities to help get people housed, but she is "hopeful" and "eager" to see what the actions the city will announce going forward to make the vision a reality.

"It's the first step. It's the start of something," said Plante.

Alicia Despins, a city councillor with the Official Opposition party, Québec d'Abord, agrees that a vision is the first step.

"The first step is making sure everyone's around the table, everyone is talking, everyone knows what the main objective is," said Despins.

Jackie Smith, leader of Transition Québec, also welcomed Quebec City's long-term plan.

"This is the first time that the city of Quebec has given itself a vision on homelessness, which is absolutely crucial, because once we recognize that homelessness is a social problem, governments need to necessarily act on it," said Smith.

"It's taking the blame from the individual who finds himself in a situation of homelessness and puts the responsibility onto the system," she said, adding that community organizations are seeing the benefit of having pushed city hall to act over the past year.