Montreal’s homeless population at Cabot Square receive second dose of COVID-19 vaccine

MONTREAL (CityNews) — The Resilience Montreal day shelter inoculated its clients from the Cabot Square area homeless community with their second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday.

Lineups formed early in the morning as no appointments were needed.

The day shelter was set to administer 70 to 100 doses to the city’s most vulnerable.

“The homeless population in this area are really very much located here, meaning a lot of them don’t travel across the city, and if you insist on having a site on the east side of Montreal or another distant location, you’re going to miss out on certain folks getting vaccinated,” said David Chapman, executive director of Resilience Montreal.

“So the idea is to do it where the people are and it’s critical with the homeless population because they don’t have the luxury of having a home to self isolate.”

Credit: CITYNEWS/Martin Daigle

Chapman says one of the issues back in January, when the first doses of the vaccine were being administered, was convincing the homeless to get the shot. That’s not the case anymore, he says.

“We have the opposite problem now,” said Chapman.

“There is a lot more desire for the vaccine and now the question is, ‘will we have enough for the people who want it?’ And we know the answer is no. But we’re trying to get the folks who need it most to get them in first.”