Homeless to be counted in Montreal tonight

In Montreal last night, the temperature dropped to minus 16 celsius.  It is hard to imagine people sleeping exposed to these conditions, but for thousands of the homeless, largely invisible by day, this is the case.

Tonight, with the temperature expected to drop only as low as minus four, 800 volunteers will be heading out in different directions to count, and speak with the people sleeping in the streets. It’s the initiative of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Research Centre, along with partners including the YMCAs of Quebec,

Professor Eric Latimer is a research scientist at the Douglas Institute and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. He is the co-director of the Montreal Homeless Count. He says this is the first census of homeless people in about 20 years in Montreal.

Several other cities, such as Boston, New York and Paris as well as several cities across Canada, including seven in Alberta, have undertaken these exercises which have led to varying degrees of success in eradicating the problem.

Professor Latimer says it is being done in Montreal in “an effort to turn homelessness from something that can be viewed as just a black hole and an inevitable consequence of industrialization and modernization of society to one of a condition that is not inevitable and that if we decide to, we can decide to put an end to.”

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

The survey is expected to find out the number of homeless people in the city. The volunteers are being deployed to meet people on the street and ask them about their residential situation.

The Montreal Homeless Count will include those living in the streets, people living in rooming houses in what Professor Latimer describes as ‘precarious housing’, as well as people now known as ‘couch surfers’, people who have no home of their own and are dependant on the kindness of friends for shelter.

The city says it will take several weeks to compile the census data and do the analysis. The final report will be submitted before the summer.