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.
At a technical briefing Tuesday morning, Serge Lareault, Montreal’s commissioner for people experiencing homelessness, said the city has gotten 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.
Residents as well as those who are or who have experienced homelessness are invited to take part in the OCPM’s consultations. The office will release a report with recommendations before next summer.
More than 800 people on the street
The consultations come as Montreal Public Health released data from the 2022 provincial homeless survey.
It found an estimated 4,690 people experiencing homelessness in the Montreal region — an increase of 33 per cent compared to 2018, but the numbers are likely an underrepresentation of the actual situation.
Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal’s public health director, called the housing crisis and the increasing cost of living a “perfect storm.” On top of that, she said, new drugs are circulating on the streets.
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.