Operation Everybody Counts is deployed from La Tuque to Drummondville, via Trois-Rivières, Shawinigan, Bécancour, Victoriaville.

Everywhere we see an increase in the number of homeless people. The organizations that come to their aid point to inflation, lack of access to housing, mental health problems, the pandemic. They expect the number of people affected by homelessness to increase by 20 to 25%.

A crisis team is in place

Alexandre Saint-Pierre was homeless two years ago. Again he finds himself in the same situation. We don’t charge for it, it’s something that happens to us against our will. Unfortunately I had a knee injury and then it went back into spiral, homeless hellhe complains.

The people met have to answer 21 questions. The questionnaire gives a good overview of the current situation in order to adapt the necessary services, especially for the winter. With the arrival of the frost, a crisis management team was set up. We’ve already added a stop where people can warm up.

Caroline Creamer, director of the Community Service Organization for the CIUSSS MCQ, would like to quickly know the current needs, which services need to be corrected and which need to be introduced. It is important to take care of them. Homelessness isn’t a state of being, she argues, it’s something that has gotten us out on the streets, on the streets. In 2022, no one would want to sleep on a park bench.

This is the third time we’ve conducted this type of census in Montreal, and it’s the second time in the region. More than half of Quebec’s homeless population was in the metropolis in 2018.

With information from Amélie Desmarais