Montreal extreme cold: Mayor Martinez Ferrada wants to add 200 warming shelter spaces

People experiencing homelessness in Montreal faced extremely cold weather over the weekend, and it’s continued into this week.

By mid-morning on Monday temperatures had dipped to minus-16 Celsius, feeling like minus-25 with the wind chill.

“Tonight there will be around 6,000 people experiencing homelessness, about 15 to 20 per cent of which are living outside,” said James Hughes, president and CEO of Old Brewery Mission.

READ: Bitter cold start to the week in Montreal

To help keep the homeless population out of the cold, a new temporary emergency homeless shelter opened last Thursday at the YMCA Centre-Ville, offering about 100 beds.

“The first night was last Thursday night. We had about 57 people using the space. So that number has been growing since Thursday night,” said Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada.

“What we’ve noticed is many women have been using the shelter, which is something that is increasingly preoccupying for everybody, seeing so many women in the streets right now, especially in this cold.”

Two new warming shelters also opened their doors last week in the city. The spaces are a part of the City of Montreal’s effort to add an additional 500 new spaces in warming shelters before Christmas.

“So we’re still looking for maybe a bit less than 200,” Martinez Ferrada said. “We have a lot of people that have reached out to us in the past few days.

“The City of Montreal will have an unprecedented number of shelters and heat shelters will be up to 3,000 by the end of December. It’s just a never seen number for Montreal. And unfortunately I expect that that will not be enough.”

Old Brewery Mission is also increasing its presence on the streets during this cold weather with a second mobile clinic to offer health services. It’s also offering other support, including helping the most vulnerable with finding housing and accommodation.

“It goes throughout the city trying to support people who are trying to make it through and our focus is to support the frontline workers in helping in getting people housed, getting people into safety,” Hughes said.

“We are trying our best to coordinate them with accommodations and warming shelters so that people do not suffer consequences from the cold,” added Zaid Cissé, a human relations officer with the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

The cold weather will continue into Tuesday.

“The general population, if worried about someone during periods of extreme cold, or even outside of those periods, do not hesitate to call the police,” said Krisztina Balogh, the SPVM’s Station 21 commander.

“If you see someone outside that’s struggling, use your best judgment but ask them if they’re OK,” added Hughes. “And if they’re not OK or they’re not moving, call 911. Stay with them if you have time.”