WATCH: The City of Montreal has released its numbers on homelessness – and the results may surprise you. Global’s Billy Shields reports.
MONTREAL – One fifth of Montreal’s homeless populace are either Natives or immigrants and at least 400 sleep outside in the winter, according to a city survey.
The city released its study on the number of homeless people in Montreal on Tuesday after Mayor Denis Coderre requested a consensus last March as part of his action plan to fight homelessness.
“We need an outreach strategy,” he said.
“We need to get into their world and understand these people.”
On March 24, about 800 volunteers went through the streets of Montreal – about 600 km – to ask people if they had a place to stay for the night and count anyone who didn’t.
It’s much less than the estimated 30,000, a number that’s been thrown around since 1995 when the last study was conducted.
The survey also found that a lower percentage of Montreal’s homeless spent their nights outside than in Vancouver, but more than Toronto or Calgary.
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