Montreal municipal election: Tackling homelessness
Posted October 6, 2025 10:38 am.
Last Updated October 6, 2025 3:55 pm.
Homelessness has become increasingly visible in Montreal, with shelters under pressure and more people struggling to find stable housing.
Advocates say the crisis is urgent, and with the municipal election just weeks away, they want to see real commitments from mayoral candidates on lasting solutions.
James Hughes, president and CEO of Old Brewery Mission, is concerned this problem will not be resolved in the upcoming municipal election.
“We need the City of Montreal to be bigger and better than we’ve ever had in the past, just because the problems are getting worse,” said Hughes.
As a new mayor will be elected soon, advocates are urging all candidates to take homelessness seriously.
“There’s really three important areas that we’re looking for the parties to pay attention to. The first big one is of course housing. Number two is encampments; we have encampments in the city we have never seen before. Then the third is area is prevention. How can we ensure that there’s less people knocking on our doors?” said Hughes.
At a recent press conference, Project Montréal Leader Luc Rabouin — one of five candidates running for mayor — says he wants to fix the housing crisis by proposing new measures for protecting rooming houses across the city.
“Too many Montrealers are worried about not being able to stay in their apartments and about ending up on the street, especially those who live in rooming houses,” said Rabouin.
Sheltered homelessness has increased 15 per cent in Quebec since 2022
Na’kuset, the executive director of the Native Women’s shelter of Montreal and its director of development philanthropy, is deeply concerned about the future of shelters in Montreal.
“Most shelters are just making it,” she said. “We spend a lot of time applying for monies. If we were to get core funding, and I’m speaking more about Resilience (Montreal) than the Native Women’s shelter, they could actually help the people, as opposed to be sitting down in an office writing to all different types of applications or funders and all that.”
