Longueuil homelessness report reveals alleged sexual crimes

The Office de participation publique de Longueuil has released the findings of a public consultation process on homelessness and social coexistence, calling for coordinated action to improve safety and living conditions for the city’s most vulnerable residents.

The report, made public Tuesday, includes 15 recommendations stemming from a participatory process launched in March 2025 at the request of Longueuil’s executive committee.

The mandate was to better understand the causes of insecurity and identify conditions needed to support harmonious social coexistence as homelessness continues to rise.

“The report says basically that if we take care of the most vulnerable people, then it benefits to the whole community,” said Julie Caron-Malenfant, president of the Office de participation publique de Longueuil. “If we work on improving the public spaces and giving more services to the people in need, then everyone wins from that.

“We received many testimonies saying that women are even more vulnerable. Everyone living in the street is vulnerable, so we agree with that, but women are even more vulnerable. And there are no, there’s only a few places where they can go to be safe.”

The recommendations are organized around four main themes: reducing insecurity, improving homelessness-related services, expanding housing with support services to prevent homelessness, and recognizing the place of people experiencing homelessness in urban planning.

The City of Longueuil says the recommendations that fall under the municipal mandate — including implementing a policy regulating encampments and building housing adapted to the reintegration of people experiencing homelessness — “are fully in line with the continuity of actions already undertaken.” It says those not under its mandate — those that would need to be taken by other levels of government — serve as a reminder to engage in “necessary consultations with other public authorities.”

“The commissioners emphasize that the City is already on the right track,” said Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier. “And we didn’t wait for the report to be tabled to act, since several recommendations falling under municipal jurisdiction have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented, particularly within the framework of our Housing Strategy and our 2024-2026 Action Plan to Combat Homelessness.

“While there is no magic solution for this complex challenge faced by most major North American cities, our understanding of the phenomenon is improving over time, allowing us to act more effectively and appropriately to meet the needs of citizens experiencing homelessness, while ensuring the sense of security of residents.”

Lack of spaces for women in shelters

The report also mentions that the Halte-Répit, a warming centre located under the Jacques-Cartier bridge, is perceived as insufficiently safe, particularly for women.

It explains that cases of assault and sexual crimes have been reported to community workers at this facility. As well, they say that many homeless women avoid it, but some still use it during extreme cold.

The organization hired to run day-to-day operations at the warming centre, La Halte du Coin, says they now have a separate room for women and that a security guard is always present.

“You only have a part of it, which is like can be used as office. It’s in this part that we have women who are sleeping there,” said Pierre Rousseau, director of La Halte du Coin.

“We have always a security agent in the trailer where people are sleeping, and we always watching these separate places. We don’t accept that the door is closed because we must have eyes everywhere in the trailer.”

Meanwhile the only shelter that exclusively serves women in Longueuil and the Montérégie region, Maison Halo, has only eight beds. Its organizers say more needs to be done to serve women experiencing homelessness in the area.

“What I’m asking myself is, is eight places in an emergency shelter enough to answer to the need of Montérégie women? Not just Longueuil for the Montérégie women,” said Blanche Rousseau-Drapeau, a clinical supervisor at Maison Halo.

“We do need more places for women. We need different places for women as well. Not just one, multiple ways of working, multiple houses, multiple emergency shelters.”

More on the report

The Office emphasized dialogue between different groups, creating what it described as safe and respectful spaces for discussion. Commissioners also met participants in community settings to reduce barriers for those less accustomed to public consultations.

Innovative approaches included the use of theatre to encourage discussion, as well as a written correspondence initiative that paired people experiencing homelessness with housed residents and institutional partners. Additional input was gathered through meetings held directly in homelessness support resources.

In addition to the formal recommendations, the report compiles approximately 160 solutions proposed by participants. Consultations took place between March and June 2025 and drew 1,062 in-person and online participations.

The full report and supporting documentation are available on the Office de participation publique de Longueuil website and through the city’s library network.