The mayor of Montreal will appoint a protector of the homeless soon, reports the Montreal Gazette. The appointee will ensure equitable access to services, assess the measures in place and convey concern and recommendations to authorities, reports John Meagher.
Volunteers counted homeless people on March 24, 2015 and found a total of 3,016 people. They found that three-quarters of them were men, 16 per cent were immigrants (while they make up 33.2 per cent of the population), 10 per cent were indigenous people and six per cent were armed forces veterans.
The government of Canada says 150,000 people use shelters every year and uses that as a basis to estimate how many are homeless.
During the election campaign in 2015, the Liberal Party promised to take action on homelessness. It was elected and advocates will be watching the tabling of the government’s budget on March 22, 2016 to see if it will allocate funding for the problem.
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