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Two people experiencing homelessness in Montreal have died this week over a span of 24 hours.
Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada was in tears Thursday morning during a news conference as she shared the information.
“We had committed to make sure we wouldn’t lose anyone on the street and we lost two people,” she said.
CBC has confirmed the deceased individuals were two men over 60 years old. They died on March 24 and 25 at two different CAP St-Barnabé shelters in the the city’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood.
Their deaths were not attributed to the cold or an overdose, but rather to health issues, according to staff at CAP St-Barnabé.
Sam Watts, the CEO of Montreal’s Welcome Hall Mission, says that these kinds of deaths are “sadly … an all-too common occurrence” that don’t usually get reported.
He explained that people experiencing homelessness are often “medically compromised” in some way. So in addition to dealing with the stress and trauma of not having a place to live, they’re also struggling with substantial medical problems.
Watts said there’s about one death a month inside organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness in Montreal. Inside his organization alone, which cares for several hundred people a day, there can be three to four deaths a year.
‘We need to do better,’ mayor says
As part of the city’s efforts to address the issue of homelessness, the mayor announced her administration will be giving $412,000 to the community organization L’Anonyme. The money will help fund a four-member team to help people living in encampments on Notre-Dame Street in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
In addition to offering psychosocial support, L’Anonyme will try to bridge the gap between homeless people, neighbours, and various groups, such as first responders, that are called to intervene.
“It’s probably not enough, I know,” Martinez Ferrada acknowledged. “We need to do better, and we need to do more.Â
“We’re going to be working with all the community centres to make sure that we are not losing anybody else in the city.”Â
For Julien Montreuil, the CEO of L’Anonyme, when even one person dies, that’s one person too many.
Soraya Martinez Ferrada took a moment to collect herself at an announcement about cleanliness in the city, after revealing officials had just learned that two unhoused people died overnight. She also announced $412,000 for community organization L’Anonyme, to help people experiencing homelessness.
Men were well known
Watts shared that the two individuals who died this week were both well known in Montreal’s “ecosystem of care.” To him, that suggests they had been homeless for a while.
“[That] frankly, should not be occurring. There are ways … of making sure that homelessness is rare, brief and not occurring. And yet we continue to have these situations where we’re putting patches on patches on patches.”
He said the priority should be keeping people in housing or getting them back into housing if they fall out of it, “and doing it quickly.”
Inspired by a policy in Longueuil, Que., boroughs in the city will now have to identify where encampments will be allowed to set up. Encampments in other locations will be moved to the designated areas instead of being dismantled.
Benoit Langevin, the city’s executive committee member responsible for the homelessness file, was also in tears at Thursday’s news conference. The Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough councillor feels the situation is getting out of hand.
Chantal Rouleau, Quebec’s minister responsible for social solidarity and community action, says the province is also in the process of trying to find solutions to this issue.
Quebec’s coroner’s office is investigating the exact causes and circumstances surrounding the two deaths, and may issue recommendations, if warranted.
