Homelessness would be top social priority in a PQ government’s first year, St-Pierre Plamondon says

The struggle against homelessness would be the major social priority of a Parti Québécois government in its first year, said party leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a message published Sunday.

There are 12,000 unhoused people in Quebec — an increase of 2,400 people in three years, he said, citing the most recent count from the Health Ministry. He said the subject too often flies below the radar in the National Assembly and the media.

The phenomenon is not only present in urban centres: 30 per cent of Quebec’s unhoused people live outside cities.

As well, St-Pierre Plamondon said, the face of homelessness has changed a great deal to include seniors without family or resources, workers who have lost their footing in the housing market because of the housing crisis, an explosion in the cost of living, mental health problems and substance dependency issues. It includes young people who have aged out of the youth protection system at 18 and people who have been released from prison.

St-Pierre Plamondon said the role of elected officials “is to show firm political will and to change their approach since current responses are insufficient.”

The government can’t do everything, but it can gather all relevant organizations to find a way to reverse the trend, he said. His government’s goal would be to reduce by 50 per cent the number of unhoused people in Quebec by 2030. St-Pierre Plamondon said he would bring together community organizations and municipalities but also business, the social economy and the not-for-profit sector.

He said he had warned as early as November 2023 of an unprecedented social crisis involving housing and homelessness. He said that, under his direction, the PQ had a detailed plan to reverse the trend.

His government, he said, would be inspired by what works elsewhere in the world. In Finland, for instance, homelessness became a national issue and a “housing first” policy implemented in 2008 reduced the number of unhoused people from 20,000 to 4,000. In Houston, Texas, a policy labelled The Way Home reduced homelessness by 61 per cent, despite an increase in the state’s total population, St-Pierre Plamondon said.

Rather than place housing on a continuum of assistance, the PQ plan would provide housing as quickly as possible and only then address other problems — problems often related to substance dependency or mental health issues. These would be addressed through direct followup and providing services to people where they live, he said.

The PQ plan covers five areas, inspired by best practices from around the world: providing housing, social services and financial assistance as well as prevention and social rehabilitation, St-Pierre Plamondon said in his message.

The PQ leader said that, in his 20s, he volunteered with Dans la Rue, an organization that deals with homelessness. As a law student at McGill University, he wrote a thesis on the evolution of rights for people experiencing homelessness and it won an award in the faculty for best essay of the year, he said.

“This subject is deeply personal to me and has concerned me for many years,” said St-Pierre Plamondon. “It is also a powerful symbol of a moral and institutional decline in our society — a decline we must absolutely reject and then reverse.”

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