Count of the homeless in Montreal | The face of homelessness transformed by the pandemic?

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Has the pandemic increased the number of homeless people in Quebec? Yes, believe the specialists of the question. To try to find the answer, more than 1,000 volunteers walked the streets of Montreal on Tuesday evening to count them. Journalists from The Press accompanied a team in the field as part of this third portrait of homelessness, which took place simultaneously in 13 other regions of Quebec.

Posted at 6:00 a.m.

Text: Delphine Belzile

Text: Delphine Belzile
The Press

PHOTOS: Sarah Mongeau-Birkett

PHOTOS: Sarah Mongeau-Birkett
The Press


PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS

The Press followed a team of four volunteers who went to meet homeless people in downtown Montreal, between rue De Bleury and boulevard Robert-Bourassa. The 2018 exercise had made it possible to identify no less than 3,000 homeless people in the metropolis. The census noted a 12% increase in homelessness in Quebec. This year, Serge Lareault, commissioner for people experiencing homelessness for the City of Montreal, predicts a 20% increase due to the pandemic.


PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS

Volunteers have the mandate to question all the people they meet about their passage in the area assigned to them. Tareq Hardan, a first-time count volunteer, chatted with a homeless woman in the middle of Robert-Bourassa Boulevard as she begged in front of cars at a traffic light. “Beyond the scientific experience, it’s really a human experience, an encounter with the other. We rarely have a reason to go to the homeless,” emphasizes Serge Lareault.


PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS

François Bonenfant, volunteer and team leader, crouched down next to a homeless man on rue De La Gauchetière, in downtown Montreal, to ask him a few questions. All volunteers hold a questionnaire and ask homeless people for information about their identity and their employment status, with the aim of making a portrait of visible homelessness. “There is no perfect scientific tool to identify this population that goes under the radar,” said Serge Lareault.


PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS

Jean-Michel Dart, a volunteer in François Bonenfant’s team, spotted a man in an alley who was about to settle outside for the night. “It’s an opportunity for me to discover the community and have contact with these people,” explains Jean-Michel Dart, nurse at the CLSC des Faubourgs working with homeless patients. For him, the count was an opportunity to better understand the reality of some of his patients.


PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS

The count of the homeless will continue on Wednesday with organizations and accommodation centres. “Homelessness is becoming more and more visible,” said Samuel Watts, President and CEO of the Mission Bon Accueil, before the departure of the teams of volunteers in the field. “The goal is really to help people find permanent housing. It is not to establish more space in emergency shelters because they should only be a temporary place, not a destination. »


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