The number of homeless people has exploded in Quebec. More than 10,000 people are now experiencing this sad reality, according to an important report from the Ministry of Health published on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by Le Journal.
This large number was eagerly anticipated given the growing camps in Montreal and Quebec, but also in Outaouais, Sherbrooke and Saint-Jérôme. Thanks to hundreds of volunteers and stakeholders, it was carried out on site in 13 regions of the province on the night of October 11-12, 2022.
And the results are disturbing. If we compare the data with the most recent data available from 2018, we see a 44% increase in the number of homeless people in Quebec.
There are now a thousand additional Montrealers on the streets, an increase of 33%. In the Capitale-Nationale the increase is 36%.
Regrettable in the regions
But overall, the largest increases have occurred in the regions. The number of homeless people has almost tripled in the Outaouais and more than doubled in the Laurentians.
Gatineau France Mayor Bélisle recently gave a heartfelt cry at the recent summit of the Union of Municipalities of Quebec after a young 18-year-old woman gave birth alone in a wooded area. She asked the Legault government for more help.
The authors of this large study cite “the lack of affordable housing” as the reason for the increase in homelessness.
“The proportion of apartments [locatifs] The amount that households can afford is very low. In Gatineau, for example, the vacancy rate was 0.8% in 2022 and only 8% of available housing was considered affordable to lower-income households,” reads.
Experts observe that the COVID-19 pandemic is also having an impact.
women and indigenous peoples
The number of homeless people is probably underestimated: “The investigative teams probably did not find all those eligible during their search on the evening of the count,” write the authors of the 374-page report.
Ministry experts also emphasize the connection between violence against women and homelessness.
“Violence quickly weakens the living conditions of the women who suffer from it,” one reads. Women without a roof over their heads “are younger, more likely to be immigrants, and more likely to have dependent children,” the authors state.
Other findings already identified in the 2018 count, such as the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples, are repeated this time. More Aboriginal people “have spent the entire year in a situation of homelessness and are therefore in a situation of long-term homelessness,” we can read.
This week, during a press briefing in the National Assembly, Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant assessed the portrait that will be unveiled today as “realistic”, without giving any figures.
“We want to create a consultation between municipalities, community organizations and entities across Quebec. There are places where things are going very well, in others we need to improve something,” he argued on Tuesday.
Gender of people experiencing homelessness
Women: 29%
Men: 67%
Gender diversity: 4%
The women
– They are generally younger than men experiencing homelessness
-23% experienced their first episode of homelessness in the last year
Men
-40% of them are 50 years and older
-34% experienced their first episode of homelessness at least 10 years ago.
Evicted from their accommodation
How does a person become homeless? “The most frequently cited reason is eviction from an apartment; around 23% of people experiencing homelessness mentioned this,” says the ministerial report.
Among the 967 people who gave this reason:
-53% of them said they were evicted because of unpaid rent
-17% due to a complaint (e.g. animal/noise/damage)
-15% due to the sale or renovation of the building
-5% due to the owner moving into the property
Better than anywhere else
In Quebec, 120 people per 100,000 inhabitants are currently homeless.
This is slightly better than numbers recently observed in other Canadian provinces such as Ontario (139), Alberta (228) and British Columbia (189).
In contrast, in Finland there are only 20 homeless people per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a study conducted in that country in 2022.
methodology
For its comparative analysis, the Department of Health and Human Services considers “individuals who spent the night in a shelter facility, an outdoor location, a detention center, or a police station cell block.” Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Côte-Nord are not included in the comparison as there are no 2018 data for these regions. The 2022 figures had to be adjusted in order to be able to compare them with those for 2018, which were collected in a different way.