{"id":71793,"date":"2026-10-10T03:54:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upndownbeirut.com\/?p=71793"},"modified":"2026-10-10T03:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:54:01","slug":"montreal-to-set-up-9-new-warming-centres-across-7-boroughs-to-help-homeless-people-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upndownbeirut.com\/?p=71793","title":{"rendered":"Montreal to set up 9 new warming centres across 7 boroughs to help homeless people this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Montreal will set up nine new warming centres across seven boroughs, part of the city\u2019s winter plan to help homeless people get through this coming winter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The centres will be in Rosemont\u2013La Petite-Patrie, Ville-Marie, the Plateau, LaSalle, Verdun, Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Saint-Laurent.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI won\u2019t leave anybody in the street to die from the cold,\u201d said Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada. \u201cThat\u2019s my promise. So whatever we need to do, we\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The city says those new centres will bring Montreal\u2019s emergency and transitional shelter spaces to 3,000. Most of the new sites will be equipped with beds, the city says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou heard the word transitional housing over and over again,\u201d said Sam Watts, the president and CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission. \u201cThat is really the solution to get people to a point where they\u2019re in a process where they\u2019re going back into permanent housing rather than a whole series of emergency measures, which are very costly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Watts says relying on emergency services can cost around $95,000 per person each year compared with between $15,000 and $40,000 to house someone, depending on the level of care they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore people are falling into homelessness than we\u2019re capable of helping get back into housing,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s in a situation where we\u2019re housing more people than we ever have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As winter approaches, people who have experienced homelessness say the new warming centres are welcome, but they want to know whether the services will be enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven though you may have new warming centres, you don\u2019t want to go to a place that\u2019s not safe or that you\u2019re going to feel not healthy about yourself,\u201d said Keekee, a client at Resilience Montreal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the staff has to be tolerable of the needs of their clients. Sometimes I\u2019ve found in the past that they still have judgments and they may have their own ideas about certain things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Keekee, a client at Resilience Montreal on Oct. 8, 2026. (Lola Kalder, CityNews)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The announcement comes one day after a 50-year-old woman died<\/strong> following a fire at a homeless encampment in Montreal North. The cause of the fire and the circumstances surrounding her death remain under investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Martinez Ferrada called the death a tragic reminder of the need to act on homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the second death of a homeless person in Quebec this week. On Monday, a 59-year-old man died in Granby after being found unconscious behind a commercial building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Montreal\u2019s Notre-Dame homeless encampment on Oct. 8, 2026. (Lola Kalder, CityNews)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Martinez Ferrada administration says it needs funding for the services required to operate the new warming shelters. It\u2019s requesting $20 million per year from the Quebec government for \u201cpredictable, sustainable funding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That funding would allow the warming centres to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really do hope that this is the last winter that will be waiting for funding, knowing that the winter comes every year,\u201d the mayor said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe request by the mayor is perfectly reasonable,\u201d said James Hughes, the former president of the Old Brewery Mission who is now the Quebec Liberal Party MNA-elect for Vaudreuil. \u201cIt\u2019s in line with what was asked last year. So I would expect given that it is a priority of the new government that they will be confirming funding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie-Claude Baril borough councillor for Rivi\u00e8re-des-Prairies\u2013Pointe-aux-Trembles with Projet Montr\u00e9al was also at the press conference Thursday, in a statement she said, \u201cthere is a certain irony in the mayor promising to solve the homelessness crisis while failing to even mobilize her own boroughs to host support services.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe also do not know the capacity of each warming centre. This information is essential for street outreach teams who need to direct people. When you are freezing, you cannot afford to be sent to a closed door,\u201d added Baril.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reacting to the encampment death, Quebec Premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said his new administration will provide emergency funding for shelters and winter warming spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs premier, I am making the fight against homelessness a personal matter,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cIt will be our priority as a government to intervene.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will act decisively to prevent this kind of tragic event from happening again,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n