Friday, October 18, 2024
35th Annual Night of the Homeless
Homelessness Has No Place in a Modern Quebec!
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
On Friday, October 18, for the 35th year, Night of the Homeless events are being held throughout Quebec under the theme Homelessness: 100 Faces. This year organizations that work with people experiencing homelessness in cities and towns across Quebec have organized events in more than 62 municipalities. By comparison, in 2021, the event was held in 30 municipalities. In three years, the number of events has more than doubled.
Since 1989, on the third Friday in October people spend the night on the streets in solidarity with those who live there in precarious and often untenable conditions. The Night of the Homeless started in 1989 as "Homeless Youth Night" organized by the Regroupement des Auberges du coeur du Québec. Formerly held in downtown Montreal, this solidarity event spread in 1997 to reach people in all communities in Quebec. The Québec Homelessness Solidarity Network has been involved in organizing the Night of the Homeless since 2019. Its aim is to raise awareness of the situation of homelessness, poverty and social isolation that affects more and more Quebeckers. During the night, everyone is invited to gather in a public space to show solidarity with people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless. Soup kitchens, shows, solidarity marches, testimonials, etc. are organized.
34th Night of the Homeless, Montreal, October 20, 2023
The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services defines homelessness in this way:
"What is visible homelessness?
"A person is considered to be visibly homeless if they do not have a permanent and safe home and are without shelter, in a place not designed for human habitation (for example, a car, a makeshift shelter or a doorway) or in a temporary resource (including an emergency housing resource, a shelter for women victims of domestic violence, a transitional resource, a therapy centre, an addiction rehabilitation centre, a crisis centre, a hospital centre, a provincial detention centre or a police department cell block).
"What is hidden homelessness?
"A person is described as being in a situation of hidden homelessness if they are temporarily housed with other people or in a hotel or motel, without having a permanent fixed address, or if they live in a rooming house."
On the night of October 11, 2022, the Ministry of Health and Social Services counted 10,000 people experiencing visible homelessness in Quebec. This is the most recent count available. This is an increase of 44 per cent compared to the previous count in April 2018, with 2,523 more people on the streets. In Montreal alone, nearly 5,000 people sleep on the streets or in emergency shelters every night.
The most striking increase in homelessness was in the Outaouais with an increase of 389 people (268 per cent). Other regions of Quebec were also hard hit, such as the Laurentians with an increase of 109 per cent and Montérégie, where "visible homelessness" increased by 98 per cent.
In October 2022, nearly three in 10 people experiencing homelessness (29 per cent) had previously been placed by the youth protection department in a foster home or other institutional setting.
Also in October 2022, 10 per cent of people experiencing homelessness were incarcerated in a provincial detention facility or a police station cell block. In addition, more than one incarcerated person in five was visibly homeless (22 per cent).
Demonstration in Quebec City for right to housing, September 15, 2024
The Government of Quebec is touting its 2021-2026 plan to combat homelessness under the theme: Joining forces against homelessness. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, writes in the introduction to the plan: "The development of cross-practices in homelessness also involves improving knowledge and sharing practical experiences. The challenge remains to take into account the very large number of faces of homelessness, the pathways, the social axes (such as age, cultural identity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.), but above all the needs of the person. In all cases, solutions to homelessness begin with listening. The 2021-2026 Interdepartmental Action Plan on Homelessness thus reaffirms that for the government, we must unite to effectively combat homelessness."
Not a word about setting a goal to eradicate homelessness in Quebec. Not a word to affirm that the right to housing must be guaranteed for all members of society to eliminate homelessness and that the government takes responsibility to do so. And to say that solutions to homelessness begin with listening when homelessness is rapidly increasing is contemptible and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It is a fraud.
In March 2024, when the provincial budget was tabled, Regroupement des Auberges du coeur du Québec (RACQ), the association of shelters in Quebec, demanded a significant increase in its funding. The group is accumulating a deficit of $27 million annually. The RACQ's mission is to offer services 24/7, 365 days a year, but it is struggling to balance its budget. They point out that the Legault government, "despite the housing crises, homelessness, mental health issues and need for access to physical and psychological health care" disregard the marginalized populations and vulnerable youth because they are not the voters that the CAQ is courting. Those on the front lines fighting for the rights of the homeless bitterly oppose government leaders and politicians of the cartel parties who care nothing about the needs of the homeless.
The system which empowers the rich and keeps the people disempowered causes homelessness. The cartel party system deprives the people of any power to decide and control the direction of the economy so that it serves the people. The government's refusal to fulfil its social responsibility to all members of society so that they can live in dignity and so that no one is left to fend for themselves causes homelessness. Homelessness is acutely exacerbated by governments' pay-the-rich policies. So too it is greatly worsened by policies which consider human beings disposable, such as refusing to guarantee housing for all while favouring large real estate companies.
Let's all support the Night of the Homeless as an integral part of the fight to build a modern Quebec that defends the rights of all. Homelessness must be eradicated.
To find a Night of the Homeless event in your area, click here.
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