The Homeless in Montreal

I used to think this was something that was associated with countries that could not afford adequate housing for its citizens or where its population could not afford the expense of having their own shelters. Times have changed greatly over the past two decades, as homelessness and panhandling have both become common sites in all the major Canadian cities. There are many people who are homeless in Montreal and what the city has been busy doing is giving them tickets for being in the parks after hours. Now many have complained that they cannot pay them and that they can’t sleep on the street at night either. The situation for the homeless has worsened when the winter approaches and they risk dying of exposure. I actually did witness this once while working g upstairs at a company and seeing someone lying in an alleyway in downtown Montreal while passers-by thought he was asleep.

There are some organizations out there with a positive approach at reducing the effects of homelessness. Some continually provide homeless shelters and that would be places for people to stay over temporarily because they have no other place to go. Church organizations and community groups may be behind that but it is only a drop in the bucket. There is a media company behind the revamping of parking meters that are being used to collect funds but one wonders how vital a contribution this will be.

Awareness of the presence of homeless peoples including those the wipe your windshields help to focus their attention on giving help. A recent effort by a local filmmaker focuses on the plight of squeegee people to show that they are harmless.

I guess there is not enough housing to accommodate the poor but there are also people out there who have chosen not to seek shelter and then they would be signing their own death certificate once the cold comes. The Old Brewery mission is not equipped to handle more than a certain number of vagrants as are other associations or benefit organizations.

A homeless association, which began at Dawson College, has brought needed clothing to the homeless around metro stations so they would not freeze to death during the winter. Now that cooler air has arrived I wonder if that organization is still active and laud their effort at stemming the tied of unfortunate loss of life.