Many homeless can't follow curfew, advocates say as groups call for aid
With shelters and hotel space full, heated tents pushed as emergency fix
To impose a province-wide curfew without ensuring there are enough beds for people who have nowhere to sleep is both senseless and cruel, representatives of Montreal's homeless shelters and marginalized communities said Monday night.
Yet the city's shelters were full on the first night Quebec's COVID-19 curfew came into effect on Saturday, and the situation is not expected to improve. Shelter groups are calling for help, including from the Canadian military, for staffing residences and to set up temporary heated tents to help the homeless escape the cold and damp.
“They have no place else to go. Already in late December Sam Watts (CEO of Welcome Hall Mission) sounded the alarm, saying there's no more space at the shelters,” said Nakuset, executive director of the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal. COVID-19 outbreaks at shelters and among the homeless, at least 100 of whom have tested positive in recent weeks, has further limited supply. Several shelters require proof that would-be residents have tested negative, a deterrent for many to use them.
“It's sort of crisis on top of crisis, and so it's just strange that the Legault government thinks there's enough rooms because there's clearly not,” Nakuset said. She joined community groups representing marginalized and at-risk individuals at a news conference Monday evening at Place Émilie- Gamelin in downtown Montreal calling for support.
Down the street, at the corner of Ste-catherine and St-hubert Sts, dozens of homeless people huddled in the wet snow outside the Place Dupuis Hotel that has been converted into a shelter. The hotel, which has roughly 350 beds, was already full by 6 p.m. The ones outside were waiting for a shuttle bus to take them to any shelter with beds remaining.
When announcing the curfew last Wednesday, Premier François Legault said he expected all homeless people to be inside during the curfew, saying there were enough spaces available.
But on Saturday, Old Brewery Mission co-ordinator Alex Desjardins told the Montreal Gazette the shelter's Solidaribus, which transports people to shelters from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., was not able to place all its clients because there were no spaces left in the city as of 10 p.m. And they couldn't stay on the bus, for fear of spreading COVID-19.
Legault said Monday “only one” homeless person in Montreal has been ticketed to date for disobeying curfew regulations. Police reported that the individual was not collaborating. Quebec's Public Security Minister Police Geneviève Guilbault promised last week police would show tolerance towards the homeless population.
Nakuset said groups have been calling for additional support since last spring to help with added challenges, including loss of staff to the disease. She's been asking for the assistance of the Canadian military, who came to Quebec's aid last spring when the disease was ravaging its seniors' centres.
She suggested the army or Red Cross could be enlisted to set up a large heated tents. The chronically addicted are particularly at risk because Montreal has fewer than 40 beds set aside for those who are intoxicated. She also called for the homeless and shelter workers to receive priority access to vaccines to ensure people could get access to beds.
Paule Robitaille, social affairs critic for the Liberal Party, echoed the call for early vaccination in an open letter Monday.
“Further outbreaks could cripple the shelter and day centre system, which is already at full capacity, even as the curfew enters its first week,” she wrote.
Imposing a curfew puts the greatest stress on those with non-standard work schedules or those who are forced to work under the table, like undocumented migrants, said Mostafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers Centres. Since the majority of outbreaks are occurring in workplaces, emphasis should be put on providing financial aid so sick people don't feel obligated to go to work.
“The idea of a curfew is really skirting the responsibility of putting profit over people,” he said.
It's sort of crisis on top of crisis, and so it's just strange that the Legault government thinks there's enough rooms because there's clearly not.