“It worries us a lot” | The Press

Carl Lavigne vigorously pulls on the zipper of his tent with a pair of pliers to try to close it. Snow accumulated on the branches of a tree falls heavily on the canvas, then slides inside. The storm of the last few days has been harsh. “This morning, I found it rough. I woke up freezing,” the 41-year-old said.

He has lived here, on the corner of a quiet street in Longueuil, a stone’s throw from the library and a shelter for homeless people, since mid-October. He was then released from prison. During the seven months of his sentence, he was unable to maintain his housing at $750 per month. Despite several approaches and a few construction contracts, he is unable to find anything within his budget. He even tried to rent a heated garage. “I won’t pay 1500 piastres for a four and a half. »

So he found himself on the street for the first time in his life. He set up his tent, which he shares with his girlfriend and their dog.

A few years ago, such a scene would have been unthinkable in the suburbs. Not anymore.

New data compiled at the end of November by The Press in 20 cities and towns allow us to paint a very first portrait of the situation of camps in Quebec. The observation is clear: makeshift installations are springing up almost everywhere, even in the regions. With the tensions generated by their occupation of public space and the lack of places in shelters, the authorities are overwhelmed.

We asked the main municipalities in several regions how many dismantling of camps or individual tents took place on their territory in the last year. We also asked them to quantify, where possible, the number of existing camps. All the towns and cities contacted reported having either dismantled or observed camps in 2023.

Result: more than 609 camps dismantled and at least 126 camps known and not dismantled. Please note that the same camp may have been dismantled several times.

In addition to Montreal and Quebec, makeshift installations have been noticed in Sherbrooke, Joliette, Gatineau, Longueuil, Drummondville, Granby, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Jérôme, Laval, Lévis and Trois-Rivières, but also in places more outlying such as Amos, Val-d’Or, Rouyn-Noranda, La Sarre, Napierville, Saguenay or even Saint-Georges, in Beauce.

“Your figures are disturbing,” says Marie-Ève ​​Sylvestre, dean and full professor of civil law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. According to her, the situation is a “national emergency, far from wanting to be resolved”.

Divergent approaches

Municipalities’ visions of how to manage these facilities vary. Ditto for their way of counting them.

There are those which, like Quebec or Saint-Jérôme, have a zero tolerance policy. As soon as a camp is reported there, it is dismantled. The Superior Court must also look into this systematic practice of the municipality. After refusing Friday to grant a provisional interlocutory injunction to put an end to it, the court must evaluate the merits of the question at a date which remains to be determined.

In Quebec, there were 58 dismantlings between January and November 2023. “As soon as patrol officers or social services see that someone has moved into a public place, we take action to redirect them to the appropriate services. Then, we dismantle the camp, it’s systematic, says spokesperson Jean-Pascal Lavoie. We think this is the best way to maintain a balance between the needs of these people and the needs of citizens. »

On the ground, the situation is less absolute. “There are camps,” notes Mary-Lee Plante, coordinator of the Regroupement pour l’aide aux itinerants de Québec.

Many camp residents do not want to live in shelters. Even if they wanted to, there would not be room for everyone in the resources, “who do not have the choice to refuse people every evening,” notes M^me Plant.

Tolerance

On the other side of the spectrum, there are cities that have tolerance policies. The authorities are monitoring the number of makeshift shelters there, although this is not exhaustive, since some installations are hidden.

In 2023, the Sherbrooke police regularly visited around thirty sites. The phenomenon has increased since the pandemic, notes Gaétan Drouin, deputy director general of the City, and will continue to grow in importance, he predicts. The lack of funding is “glaring”. Police Captain Sébastien Ouimette, responsible for the homeless component, has also requested money from Quebec, which he has not yet received, to assign other agents to the homeless clientele. “We don’t have enough time for everything,” he says. (See other text)

The agglomeration of Longueuil, for its part, reports five confirmed places with tents, including the one where Carl Lavigne lives, and ten places qualified as “uncertain”, “that is to say that the observations date or have not been yet been verified at the moment. “We will try to help people and take them to the right resources. If the camp is not safe, we will take measures, but we cannot arrive with the cavalry,” explains Raphaël Larocque-Cyr, spokesperson for the City.

Lack of resources

In Laval, the size of the territory prevents the authorities from having a complete picture. “We have a lot of wooded areas and fields. There are surely some who are not brought to our attention,” says Martin Métivier, head of the social emergency division of the Laval police. Last year, his team visited around ten camps, seven of which were dismantled. Three presented fire risks. For three others, City workers never managed to get in touch with the occupants. The resident of the seventh floor was transported to hospital after a month of repeated interventions due to mental health issues.

“The phenomenon is increasing. It was anecdotal two years ago, says Mr. Métivier. We are still developing our approach. For now, we’re still going a little piecemeal. If we tolerate too much, we will create a security problem, but there is also respect to be had. If there is no complaint or danger, are we obliged to dismantle? The reality is that there is no room for all these people [dans les ressources]. We are so close to Montreal that they absorb the majority of the funding. »

In Gatineau, the CISSS de l’Outaouais team regularly visits two major sites to provide basic care. The first, which has often made the headlines, had 70 tents and 21 motorhomes as of November 3. The other had “six or seven” installations. Be careful, warns Jeneviève Caron, from the mental health and addictions department, in the camps, there are often more tents than people living there. The same person sometimes uses more than one tent to store their possessions. Individuals maintain a settlement at the camp even if they sleep in a shelter.

Besides these two major camps, others are surely hidden, but the CISSS lacks the resources to locate them. “We have a lot of waterways, a lot of cycle paths, and all that with the park [de la Gatineau] “, said M^me Because we.

In Saguenay, people “spent the winter outside in their camps last year,” admits spokesperson Dominic Arseneau. “They were very creative about keeping warm,” he said, adding that their facilities were discreet and had not drawn complaints.

“We try to redirect people to resources. If they accept, so much the better. It no longer becomes a dismantling, so to speak. But there are also camps that were tolerated for a long time because they were in a place where they didn’t bother anyone,” says Mr. Arseneau.

In Longueuil, Carl Lavigne knows that his presence is disturbing. “There are people who complain,” he said. For now, the police tolerate it. The same goes for the few neighboring tents, its “mini-community”.

But he wants more. “When there is a typhoon somewhere, help is organized. It’s an emergency situation here. Open the buildings at night, he said, pointing to the ice rink chalet in the park across the street. Put out camp beds. »