The committee on homelessness, chaired by the mayor of Quebec Bruno Marchand at the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ), will commission a study to document the costs assumed by cities in connection with this phenomenon.
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Created last December, this new municipal committee – made up of a dozen elected officials – officially began its work this week.
In a press release issued the day after the committee’s first meeting, on Tuesday, we learn that a study will be carried out over the next few months to obtain a more precise picture of the costs incurred for the municipalities.
The UMQ press officer confirms that this is one of the first actions taken by the committee. The costs of police services, emergency accommodation, the hiring of dedicated resources and grants to community organizations, for example, should be scrutinized.
The study, it is hoped, will be ready in time for the municipal summit on homelessness, scheduled for this fall.
Invest the money in the right place
In 2017, a study by health economist Eric Latimer at McGill University estimated that the annual cost of health, social and legal services provided to homeless people with mental illness in Montreal , amounted to more than $56,000 on average per person.
However, this sum also included the costs assumed by the State and included health care. The researcher, who then looked at 5 Canadian cities, mentioned, however, great disparities in the way the amounts were allocated from one city to another and said he believed that there might be a need “to allocate available funds more wisely”.
An “example in the world”?
The mayors involved are committed to ensuring that Quebec becomes “an example in the world” in the fight against homelessness. An ardent promoter of the concept of zero homelessness, the mayor of Quebec has been under fire from criticism since his election because of the situation that still prevails in the capital.
“If the origins of the current situation are multiple, the observation is unequivocal: more and more people are living on the streets, without any other recourse,” he acknowledges.
Even if the municipalities “already do a lot”, he refuses to give up and reaffirms that homelessness should not be seen as inevitable. However, the solution will not come only from the cities.
No “temporary bandage”
“Instead of putting on a temporary bandage, we must put ourselves in solution mode with the governments and all the players concerned, and draw inspiration from best practices to better prevent and reduce homelessness. This first meeting of the committee was very productive and I look forward to continuing the reflections with my colleagues from the UMQ in the weeks to come,” he declared on Tuesday.
The Union committee will focus in particular “on how to rethink, through the use of best practices or policies, the current framework to do things differently, while respecting the realities and characteristics of each environment”, it is specified in the press release.