Montreal mayor says 2 people experiencing homelessness died in last 24 hours
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Two people experiencing homelessness in Montreal have died within a 24-hour period this week.
Mayor Soraya Martínez Ferrada cried while sharing information during a news conference Thursday morning.
“We had made a commitment to make sure we wouldn’t lose anyone on the road and we lost two,” he said.
CBC has confirmed that the dead were two men in their 60s. He died in two separate CAP Saint-Barnabé shelters in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood of the city on 24 and 25 March.
According to CAP Saint-Barnabé staff, the cause of their deaths were not cold or overdose, but health problems.
Sam Watts, CEO of Montreal’s Welcome Hall Mission, says these types of deaths are “sadly… a very common occurrence” that typically goes unreported.
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 are also dealing with major medical problems.
Watts said there is about one death each month in organizations that serve homeless people in Montreal. Within his organization alone, which cares for several hundred people a day, there may be three to four deaths a year.
Soraya Martínez Ferrada shared during a press conference Thursday that two people in their 60s experiencing homelessness died within 24 hours this week. According to people who knew the men, their deaths were related to health issues — a sign to some that Montreal has reached the point where crises multiply and overlap.
‘We need to do better,’ says mayor.
As part of the city’s efforts to address homelessness, the mayor announced that his administration will commit $412,000 Community organization L’Anonyme. The funds will help a four-member team help people living in camps on Notre-Dame Street in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
In addition to offering psychosocial support, L’Anonyme will attempt to bridge the gap between homeless people, neighbors and various groups, such as first responders, who are called to intervene.
“It’s probably not enough, I know,” Martínez Ferrada admitted. “We need to do better, and we need to do more.
“We’re going to work with all the community centers to make sure we’re not losing anyone else in the city.”
For Julien Montreuil, CEO of L’Anonyme, when even one person dies, they are more than just one person.
Soraya Martínez Ferrada took a moment to collect herself following an announcement about a city cleanup after officials learned two homeless people died overnight. He also announced $412,000 for L’Anonyme, a community organization that helps people experiencing homelessness.
men were famous
Watts shared that the two people who died this week were both well-known in Montreal’s “ecosystem of care.” To them, this suggests they had been homeless for a period of time.
“(That) frankly, should not be happening. There are ways … to make sure that homelessness is rare, brief and not occurring. And yet we continue to have situations where we’re putting patches on patches.”
He said the priority should be to keep people in housing or get them back into housing if they move out of housing, “and do it quickly.”
Inspired by a policy in Longueuil, Que., city boroughs must now identify where camps will be allowed to set up. The hinges present at other places will be moved to designated areas instead of being broken.
Benoit Langevin, the member of the city’s executive committee responsible for the homelessness file, also cried at Thursday’s news conference. A Pierrefonds-Roxborough city councilor thinks the situation is getting out of control.
Chantal Rouleau, Quebec’s minister responsible for social solidarity and community action, says the province is also trying to find a solution to the issue.
Quebec’s coroner’s office is investigating the exact causes and circumstances of the two deaths, and may issue recommendations if necessary.
