Homelessness has grown significantly in Quebec. Ten thousand people were in a situation of visible homelessness on the night of October 11, 2022, according to data from the latest count which will be made public on Thursday, we learned The Press. An increase that affects all regions of Quebec. And the main cause of housing loss now: evictions.
This number of 10,000 homeless people represents an increase of 44% compared to the last count in April 2018, indicates the Quebec government report, or 2,523 more people on the street. These data “remain estimated numbers and are certainly lower than the actual number of people experiencing homelessness,” the report specifies.
Given the scale of the crisis, the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, will announce an additional $20 million to cover urgent needs, shelters among others, in preparation for winter.
First observation of the report: homelessness has become regionalized. In 2018, 80% of homeless people were in Montreal, compared to 60% in 2022. This represents an increase of 1,033 more people on the streets of the metropolis.
It is in Outaouais that the increase in homelessness is most striking, an increase of 389 people (268%). Other regions of Quebec are hard hit, such as the Laurentians with an increase of 109% and Montérégie, where visible homelessness increased by 98%.
Second observation: the number of people living directly outside, whether in camps or on the streets, has more than doubled in the province (55% increase). “It is important to note that the increase in homelessness in outdoor places is becoming more and more significant in certain regions, such as Mauricie – Centre-du-Québec, Estrie and Outaouais, perhaps we read in the report. In fact, we observe a form of regionalization of street homelessness. »
Evictions, the leading cause of housing loss
More than two in ten homeless people indicated that eviction from their housing led to their homelessness, making it the main tipping point onto the streets in 2022. In 2018, substance abuse was the main reason invoked for the loss of the last accommodation.
Reasons leading to eviction can be unpaid rent, renovations or complaints, for example. “It must be recognized that not all evicted tenants manage to find new housing,” the report indicates. Thus, a truly preventive measure would consist of offering support services to evicted tenants as soon as the decision is made. [Tribunal administratif du logement] rendered, otherwise upon submission of a request. »
However, these data vary from region to region. For example, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region, mental health is considered the main cause of homelessness, at 26%. In Montérégie, it is more the consumption of substances.
Another troubling detail: in 2022, a high percentage of people experiencing homelessness were working. In Montreal, for example, 17% of people on the street were employed at the time of the count, compared to 16% provincially.
Quebec will take stock on Thursday
As the housing crisis and evictions are the main cause of the increase in homelessness, the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, will accompany her colleague from Social Services Lionel Carmant to react to the report on homelessness on Thursday Morning.
Mr. Carmant had warned in recent days that the new portrait was going to be rather dark. “We must break the trend,” he said Wednesday during a brief press scrum in parliament.
“It’s a new problem” that affects all of Quebec. “We need to stabilize, come back down before talking about eradicating” homelessness, he added.
The count sets the table for the Homelessness Summit of the Union of Quebec Municipalities on Friday. Lionel Carmant will be eagerly awaited there, especially after the collision that occurred last week. Mayors had strongly criticized his management of the homelessness crisis. Minister Carmant responded by asking them to “lower their tone”. “It’s not by throwing tomatoes that we’re going to solve the problem,” he argued.
On Wednesday, Lionel Carmant tried to ease tensions in anticipation of the Summit. “Let’s help each other,” he said. “It has to be constructive. We need to take a step forward from here, a big step forward. »
Lionel Carmant will not arrive empty-handed at the event as he will distribute an additional $20 million to cover urgent needs, those of shelters among others, in preparation for winter. In interview at The Press last week, the Ministry of Finance Eric Girard also said that the action plan on homelessness announced in 2021, which provided for 280 million in five years, will be improved. “We can do more,” he admitted. The government’s big financier also promised additional funds to build more social and affordable housing.
Overrepresented groups
Certain groups are particularly present in the streets. This is the case for indigenous people, who represent almost half of the homeless people in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and on the North Shore. In total during the census, 13% of people identified themselves as indigenous, that is to say 5 times more than in the general population.
Not only are indigenous people over-represented on the streets, but they have also been there longer than non-indigenous people, the report specifies. According to the count, 38% of Indigenous people indicated having experienced their first episode of homelessness more than 10 years ago, compared to 29% of non-Indigenous people.
People of sexual and gender diversity represent 15.5% of people counted on the street, and even 28.7% of young people under 30. One of the explanations for this over-representation could be linked to the rejection of the family home, specifies the report.
“LGBTQ+ young people, and in particular trans and non-binary young people, should therefore be the subject of particular attention when the time comes to define prevention measures,” says the report.
Around three out of ten people experiencing homelessness have also already been placed in different DPJ services.
Incarcerated people are also very present among homeless people. One in five incarcerated people have lost their housing,
Finally, according to the count, one in two people had been on the street for less than a year, 36% for one to five years, 15% for 5 to 10 years and 31% for 10 years or more. The vast majority of people experiencing homelessness, 67%, are men.
Methodology
On the evening of October 11, 2022, hundreds of stakeholders, street workers, as well as more than 1,000 trained volunteers crisscrossed the streets of 248 sectors and 112 targeted locations in 13 regions of Quebec, specifies the report. In the following days, resources offering accommodation to people experiencing homelessness also transmitted information, as did addiction rehabilitation centers, hospitals and prison establishments. The data was analyzed by the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ), with the mentorship of researcher Eric Latimer, who analyzed the data from the 2018 count.