Montreal’s winter plan for the homeless: crisis unit, warming shelters

Montreal’s new mayor laid out her plan Monday to support the homeless population this winter — as the cold weather begins to set in.

Among the proposals: a crisis unit to coordinate the city’s interventions on the ground.

The Martinez Ferrada administration is also planning to install hundreds of heating stations across the city, and promising to not dismantle homeless encampments. The mayor says the homeless crisis in the city is worse than ever, and it is her top priority.

Crisis unit

The crisis unit – a combination of municipal and provincial officials as well as community organizations – will meet every week to adapt to the new reality on the ground and facilitate speedy decision-making.

It will be made up of the health and social services network, Quebec’s ministries of municipal affairs and public security, community partners, and the City of Montreal.

“The idea is to have that agility to make the decisions … so we can address quickly the issue and resolve it rapidly,” Martinez Ferrada explained.

Martinez Ferrada says the unit will work closely with the city’s borough mayors.

“Having a crisis unit like we’re putting in place also gives the opportunity to boroughs or other cities to call upon us and say, ‘what do we do?’

“Boroughs and citizens and organizations are not alone and they have to be able to call upon us.”

Warming shelters

The announcement comes as the City of Montreal plans to triple its homelessness budget.

A portion of the funding will go towards creating 500 additional spaces in new warming shelters by Christmas, though officials did not immediately reveal where.

“Homelessness has no borough and has no address and so what we need to do is coordinate that,” said Sam Watts, the CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission.

Martinez Ferrada says the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud has confirmed funding that will allow community organizations to operate the sites.

Homeless encampments

Martinez Ferrada has promised to end homeless encampments in Montreal within four years, but says in the interim, tent cities will not be dismantled.

She says the city is working on a protocol for how to manage encampments in a way that respects the dignity of occupants.

Executive committee president Claude Pinard, who is also responsible for homelessness in Montreal, says when sites do need to be moved, support workers will help people relocate.

City officials also say that Montreal will be ready to support encampments with materials like sleeping bags, when needed.

“You can’t move a person if you don’t have a solution,” Pinard said.

“We are having a protocol in encampments, making sure that they feel safe,” added Martnez Ferrada. “Not only if you’re in an encampment, but if you’re a citizen and you’re cohabitating with an encampment.”

Etienne Desgagnés at the Old Brewery Mission says this is the type of approach the organization has been asking for.

“The more time we have with people in the encampments, the more success stories we can have of them integrating our services,” Desgagnés said.

Last week, city workers destroyed a tent encampment in Montreal North, with borough mayor Christine Black calling it a “misunderstanding.” The workers destroyed most of the belongings of the encampment’s occupants during what was supposed to be a cleanup of the site.

Long-term solutions?

Regional health officials say Montrealers will be updated through every stage of the rollout — something they hope will reduce the tensions that can arise around cohabitation with the homeless.

“This is one of the objectives of communication that we will have to work on,” said Mylène Drouin, regional director of Public Health in Montreal.

Non-profit groups are giving the new plan a vote of confidence.

But they hope the initiative evolves into something more stable and long term, so Montreal doesn’t continue operating in emergency cycles winter after winter.

“The hard thing with navigating the system is that nobody talks to each other. So that crisis cell, I think, is very much needed,” said Tania Charron, the executive director of Ricochet Housing.

“We need as community organizations more predictability, more stability to make sure that we don’t go through emergency mode cycle again next year and the years coming.”