Second homeless Montrealer dies during the bitterly cold night

For the second time in ten days, a homeless person was found dead in Montreal during a night out in the freezing cold.

The woman, a 64-year-old known as Stella, was known to frequent the hotel-shelter called Place Dupuis before it closed. She was found not far from there, near the Berri-UQAM Metro station.

Urgences-Santé said it received a 911 call about a woman in her 60s who was in need of immediate medical attention. When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found the woman in cardiorespiratory arrest.

She was pronounced dead shortly after.

Multiple objects were found at her side and she was wearing several items of clothing in order to cope with freezing temperatures over the last few days.

On Jan. 10, a 74-year-old homeless man was found dead in a makeshift camp set up under an overpass in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood.

That file has been turned over to the coroner's office for investigation.

“We don’t have enough places, we definitely don’t have enough places, and we need more. Especially right now with the extreme cold,” said Neila Ben Ayed, women’s services director at the Old Brewery Mission.

While Stella used to visit the Place Dupuis shelter, it closed last summer.

“When it closed in July of 2021, a lot of people went to other services. So we kind of lost track at that point,” said Watts.

A new wet shelter was inaugurated Friday in the Quartier Latin, serving the city’s homeless indigenous community, with room for 50 people.

“We really hope this can be a gathering place for the Milton Park community,” said Heather Johnston of Projets Autochtones du Quebec. “It’s a place where they can come, be safe, physically safe, culturally safe.”

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 21, 2022. With files from CTV News Montreal's Billy Shields.