On February 27, 2014, Minister Véronique Hivon unveiled the National Policy to Combat Homelessness, To avoid the street and get out. The Marois government then adopted this policy developed with the community sector and actively demanded for a decade.
With his vision, this policy was to reduce and prevent homelessness. However, since then, homelessness has increased throughout Quebec, shelters are no longer enough and camps are multiplying.
Ten years later, what happened? The political will to deploy this policy in all regions and to invest the necessary funds has definitely been lacking.
A global vision
To act on the phenomenon, the National Policy to Combat Homelessness is based on recognition of rights and the responsibility of the State. It provided for action on five axes: housing, health and social services, income, education and integration, as well as cohabitation and diversion. No less than 10 ministries were signatories to the policy and were therefore directly called upon to act and combat homelessness.
The government reaffirmed in its homelessness policy its adherence to the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This pact prescribes “the right of everyone to an adequate level of income for themselves and their family, including adequate food, clothing and housing…”
With this policy, Quebec avoided the trap of identifying only one cause and one solution to homelessness. Absence and loss of housing certainly lead to the street, but it is also caused by poverty, leaving institutions, youth centers, hospitals and prisons. The living conditions of indigenous people on and off reserve lead many to homelessness. We must act on different fronts to reduce homelessness, including solidly in housing, the first axis of the policy
Consequently, in the budget tabled before losing the elections, the PQ government planned to create 3,500 social housing units per year in the AccèsLogis program. This number would have been the highest of this program created in Quebec after the abandonment of support for social housing by the federal government in 1994.
AccèsLogis had notably proven itself in enabling organizations to develop social housing projects with community support. An intervention that helps stabilize people experiencing homelessness in housing.
A sacrificed deployment
A few weeks after the adoption of the homelessness policy, the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard took power. The selective austerity applied by his finance minister, Carlos Leitão, would reduce the financing of AccèsLogis. Likewise, no investment in structural measures, such as income and reintegration programs, was put in place by this government.
The action plan he adopted certainly took up the objectives and axes of the policy, but aimed at very limited action, and only in a few regions. This lack of resources and political will will cause homelessness to increase, we said then, from 2014.
For more than five years, it is the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government that has led homelessness policy action. He did worse than the Liberals, not financing any new housing with AccèsLogis in his first mandate. He only provided funds to support the construction of housing committed before his government, which is still not finished in 2024.
Re-elected, the Legault government eliminates AccèsLogis. Also, like the Liberals, no other social measure aims to counter homelessness. It is not only with increased funding for community groups struggling with exploding homelessness that the trend will be reversed.
Camps or accommodation?
Two years ago, the count taken at a single time identified 10,000 people experiencing homelessness visible in Quebec. Since then, this number has continued to grow. Men, women of all ages, families, people with immigrant backgrounds become homeless. Rightly, cities are crying for help.
Currently, in many cities, new places in shelters are being added, still insufficient, while camps are multiplying. In Montreal, 460 homeless encampments were dismantled in 2023! This only displaces them, just like in Gatineau, Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, Longueuil. Faced with the scale of the housing and homelessness crises, more and more people are settling in these camps, to last, in conditions dangerous for their lives.
On February 13, federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle called for an intervention plan to resolve the situation of encampments that have multiplied across the country, a question of life and death, she rightly said. What response will be given to his request?
In Quebec, the next government budget must restore significant funds for the AccèsLogis program, just as the federal budget must announce significant and recurring funding for social housing.
To avoid and get off the streets, access to housing, income, care and services are necessary, says the National Homelessness Policy. These are significant investments, but doing nothing will cost more. We may transform hotels, churches and arenas into shelters, but that will not solve homelessness.