Councillor wants state of emergency on Montreal homeless crisis

Independent Montreal city councillor Craig Sauve is calling on the city to declare a state of emergency to deal with the homeless population this winter.

Sauve said that because the number of unhoused people has soared and with the greater risk to sleeping outside in the colder months, the city should requisition hotel rooms for people without shelter.

Assisting unhoused people is a shared responsibility between the city and the province, but Sauve said that with winter approaching, Montreal could compel Quebec to step up emergency shelters in hotel rooms.

“When you have a secure place where people can stay at night, that’s not a tent, where they’re not in crisis mode, you can get better results with people because they have that level of safety and security,” Sauve told CTV News. “You can get further with them with the social work that’s needed with people on the streets.”

The city could do this under provincial law if it declared a state of emergency.

“I think it would be a bold move that would bring Quebec a little bit more serious on this issue,” said Sauve. “I find that Quebec is dropping the ball big time and we need to initiate this.”

City councillor Robert Beaudry holds the homeless file on the executive committee at city hall and said he shares Sauve’s sense of urgency but that declaring a state of emergency is not the way to go about it.

He said it’s not just the cold that is killing people, but also drug use, which is an issue the provincial health network needs to address.