Over the past year, the issue of houselessness in Montreal has gained attention in the public sphere. In 2015, Montreal had the highest rate of chronic homelessness in Canada at 60%. Today, there are an estimated 4000 people living unhoused in Montreal, a figure that has increased significantly with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Houselessness in Montreal is a glaring example of the racialized inequalities that persist throughout the city. The housing crisis is highly racialized, rooted in ongoing settler colonialism and systemic discrimnation. In Montreal, Indigenous people are vastly overrepresented in the unhoused population, and 45% of people living unhoused in Montreal are Inuit. Data on the rates of Black people and other racialized people within the unhoused population of Montreal are unavailable, but Canada-wide data shows that Black people face systemic housing discrimination across the country which leads, in some cases, to houselessness. Updated statistics on houselessness are also hard to come by, making the implementation of the OCPM’s many recommendations related to race-based data collection all the more important for addressing the housing crisis. Evidently, houselessness is a persistent and racialized crisis that requires long-term and culturally appropriate responses.
A few weeks ago, Isabel Klassen-Marshall, one of MeA’s policy analysts, had the chance to chat over Instagram live with Sophie Hart, founder of the student-run community organization Meals for Milton-Parc (M4MP) that aims to support and advocate for people living unhoused in the Milton-Parc neighbourhood. Here are some highlights from that conversation, including how they relate to Montreal’s response to homelessness over the last year, and how the recommendations from the OCPM’s consultation on systemic racism and discrimination can address this inadequate and harmful response:
Covid- 19 and Community Responses
M4MP arose as a response to houselessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has exacerbated existing inequalities, and made houselessness increasingly visible to many people. From the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen the city mandate regulations that are not feasible for people living unhoused to follow. Shelters and emergency measures such as hotel shelters have been touted by the city as solutions to the increase in people living unhoused during the pandemic. However, these shelters often have barriers to access for people living unhoused, including expectations of soberness and comfort in a controlled group environment. Beyond these expectations, many shelters experienced COVID-19 outbreaks, causing people to feel safer living in outdoor encampments than in the shelters themselves. These outbreaks were also racialized, as at one point during the second wave, there was an 80% positivity rate among the Indigenous street community.
Many Indigenous-led community organizations, such as Montreal Indigenous Community Network, Resilience Montreal and Projet Autochtone du Québec banded together to create two warming tents that provided respite for people living on the street, with a focus on Indigenous peoples who were/are living unhoused. However, much of the emergency funding that supported these warming tents as well as other vital projects is set to expire on June 30th, without a plan for the continuation of these essential services. Both of the warming tents closed about a month ago, and M4MP has since seen a large increase in people living unhoused at Milton and Parc.
The Criminalization of People Living Unhoused
One of Montreal’s methods of responding to the increase in people living unhoused during COVID-19, and even prior to the pandemic, has been to criminalize them. A recent report shows that 40% of fines issued in Montreal are given to people living unhoused. These fines create a cycle of debt, making it even more difficult for unhoused people to access housing and employment. On their website, the SPVM claims that “SPVM patrol officers are called on more than 40 times a day—or 14,600 times a year—to respond to situations involving the homeless” This overreliance on the police in interactions with people living unhoused has led to many harmful outcomes including the forced evictions of outdoor encampments. Trained community intervention workers would be a more appropriate response to calls relating to people living unhoused. Evictions of people living outside, often the safest place for them during a pandemic, are violent and damaging, and likely cost more than productive solutions to the housing crisis will in the long term.
Solutions moving forward: OCPM Recommendation #33
Within the OCPM’s consultation on systemic racism and discrimination, recommendation #33 includes many useful ways for the city to address houselessness in a more appropriate and supportive matter. Firstly, recommendation 33a calls for an “intersectional evaluation on the allocation process of vacant lots to community groups who intend to build social and community housing” to be done every three years with anti-racism experts. The implementation of this action item could positively impact many people living unhoused, especially Indigenous people and Black people who are vastly overrepresented in the unhoused population. For example, at the intersection of Milton and Parc, there is a vacant parking lot that many unhoused Inuit people utilized in the past. Last summer, a fence was erected around the lot by a nearby building owner. Instead of marginalizing Indigneous Peoples on Indigenous land, this unused space could become a social housing project in a neighbourhood that many unhoused Inuit and other people living unhoused already call home. There are many other vacant lots across the city that could be used to appropriately address the housing crisis rather than to create more unaffordable commercial housing.
Secondly, recommendation 33c calls on the city of Montreal to support an Indigenous-led housing project. Despite the high rates of Indigenous people living unhoused in the province, there is only one Indigenous social housing project in Quebec. There are many Indigenous organizations in Montreal that are already working their hardest to meet the needs of Indigenous people living unhoused. For example, Projet Autochtones Quebec operates a managed alcohol program that lessens the barriers that many unhoused people face when trying to access shelters. Indigenous organizations need to be given consistent funding in order to be able to implement long-term solutions that support Indigenous people on their own terms.
Montreal is touted as a city of reconciliation, and has created an explicit strategy for reconciliation that includes plans for Indigenous housing projects. These plans and recommendation #33 of the OCPM’s consultation must be implemented with the urgency that the housing crisis merits, so that people can begin to meet their needs and lead fulfilling lives. The solutions to the housing crisis are clear - transitional and permanent housing must be invested in now. No amount of emergency measures will ever adequately address a housing crisis rooted in Canada’s deep and ongoing structure of settler colonialism and systemic discrimination.