Roger-Luc Chayer (Image : AI / )
Montreal’s image as a prosperous, modern and welcoming metropolis can change within moments. For visitors arriving downtown, the first scene of their tour may not be the architecture, terraces, festivals or picturesque streets featured in promotional material, but approximately 20 to 25 homeless people gathered beside garbage and filth.
That was what I saw yesterday afternoon while waiting for about 30 minutes in a parking lot near Jeanne-Mance Street. I had driven a fellow journalist downtown so he could attend to personal matters. Jeanne-Mance Street is another Montreal street that has been closed, forcing drivers to make detours that are not even reasonable, although that is not the subject of this article.
The people around me included both men and women. Some were lying on the sidewalk. Others were asleep, leaning against whatever was nearby. They appeared to be contemplating the surrounding garbage and dirt, abandoned in the middle of the city.
I am accustomed to seeing poverty in Montreal’s Gay Village, but this location was downtown, only a few metres from the courthouse. As far as I could see, people were left without a meaningful place to go and without the services they clearly needed. Their situation raised the question of how such abandonment can be accepted in a society that owes them help and assistance, particularly under the principles of dignity and protection recognized by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
Across Saint-Antoine Street, an open-top tourist bus was filling with visitors preparing to discover the metropolis. They looked toward the scene, and their expressions said a great deal. Their visit had presumably been expected to begin with the version of Montreal presented in tourist brochures. Those brochures may promise lively terraces, attractive buildings, picturesque streets, festivals and a city that is dynamic, welcoming and open to the world.
They do not usually mention that visitors might also find about twenty homeless people nearby, with some lying on the sidewalk and others sleeping directly on the ground among garbage and filth. Such a scene would probably make Montreal less attractive on a postcard, which may explain why nobody promotes this particular tourist attraction: human misery in the heart of downtown, just a few metres from the courthouse.
As the bus prepared to leave, I watched the visitors observing what was around them. Their reactions contrasted sharply with the promotional photographs used to sell Montreal. That day, their first impression included an image that those responsible for tourism marketing would probably have preferred to see disappear before the bus passed.
The numbers suggest that what is visible on the sidewalks is only part of the situation. According to the most recent estimates, Montreal would have between 6,000 and 10,000 people experiencing homelessness. Even that range would probably not describe the entire problem because it would not account for, or would not fully account for, hidden homelessness.
Hidden homelessness involves people who are without stable or safe housing, but who do not necessarily live on the street and do not use shelters. While some people sleep on sidewalks, in parks or near metro stations, others survive quietly by moving from one couch to another, staying in a car or relying on temporary accommodations. The visible population would therefore be only the tip of a much broader problem.
During my wait, nobody came to ask whether the people in the parking lot needed assistance. In my view, many of them were clearly in distress. I was sitting comfortably inside my vehicle, listening to music on the radio, while some of the men and women looked at me.
Their looks were not threatening. They seemed, at times, to be silently asking for a small amount of help, but above all for a small measure of dignity. The scene was devastatingly sad and, honestly, heartbreaking.
Shared Responsibility, Limited Action
Seeing dozens of homeless people downtown sitting among garbage, sleeping on sidewalks or simply waiting makes one question unavoidable: who is responsible?
No single level of government provides an easy answer. Responsibility is shared by the City of Montreal, the Government of Quebec and the federal government, but shared responsibility should not mean that no one is accountable.
The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, notably in section 45, recognizes that every person in need has the right to financial assistance measures and social measures provided for by law and likely to ensure a decent standard of living. That principle is important, although it does not mean that every homeless person automatically possesses an individual right to an apartment supplied by the state.
Montreal’s own framework makes the city’s role more concrete. The Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities includes a commitment to facilitate access to a temporary and safe place to sleep for people without a home. The City also has genuine powers related to housing and can support transitional accommodation for people in need.
Montreal is therefore not merely a powerless observer of what happens in its streets. Yet the scene beside the courthouse leaves a difficult question: what does “facilitating access” to a safe place mean when a person is sleeping only a few metres away, surrounded by garbage, and apparently no one approaches to ask whether help is needed?
The City is not the only government involved. Quebec carries major responsibilities for health, social services, financial assistance and a significant part of housing and social housing programs. When health problems, addiction, poverty or social exclusion are involved, a municipality cannot be expected to solve the entire situation alone.
The federal government has a different role. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects, among other things, the rights to life, liberty and security of the person, as well as equality. That does not mean Ottawa has no responsibility. The federal government acts particularly through funding programs and national policies concerning housing and homelessness.
The result is a system involving several levels of government and several organizations. That arrangement may itself contribute to the problem: when everyone is responsible, it can become easy to find no one who actually is.
Charters may recognize rights, governments may adopt policies and cities may create programs. None of those measures, however, can replace the simplest human response to someone in distress: approaching that person and asking:
“Do you need help?”
Perhaps that is where action should begin, before another consultation is organized.
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