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The Alberta government is making a navigation and support centre to provide safe shelter for the homeless in Edmonton permanent and has announced plans for a similar facility to be created in Calgary.

The UCP government announced it was setting up the centre in mid-January, largely to deal with the hundreds of homeless people displaced after Edmonton police dismantled eight encampments deemed by the city to be high risk.

Welcome Hall Mission CEO Sam Watts on a new report revealing Montreal is taxing emergency shelters.

Shepherds of Good Hope proposing 4th facility in city's Carlington neighbourhood

The City of Ottawa must consider the potential impact on the surrounding community before allocating money from a federal housing fund to supportive housing projects, councillors decided Wednesday.

The funding in question comes from the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which pledged $176 million toward housing in Ottawa. Ninety per cent of that money was allocated to affordable housing projects that are ready to build but lack funding, such as the proposed Shepherds facility.

City hall enforced its eviction notice at Halifax’s Grand Parade encampment today by disconnecting power to the tents still at the site, but even on one of the coldest days of the year, the people living there refuse to leave.

At 9 a.m. this morning, city crews and volunteers from the encampment disconnected the only source of power, which provided heating to all the tents, plunging people living there into the bitter cold.

Kevin McGuire is one of 12 people still living on the property. For him, the tent was a safe space, warm, and comfortable enough.

“I’m feeling really cold. It was minus 25 this morning. They took away my power which was my only source of heat,” said McGuire. “This is only going to make me sicker and I’d be lucky if I can survive it.

"We've got people who walk alongside them for a couple of months, and then they're on their own," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.

The program was born mid-2021, after intervention workers noticed many people falling into homelessness since the beginning of the pandemic didn't fit the usual profile.

"[They're] somebody who's just struggling and a few dollars away from homelessness, unable to pay their rent, or they're part of maybe a classic rental eviction," he said.

Lorsque le bureau de l’élu de QS a appris ce qui se passait au 2215, boulevard Rosemont, des membres de l’équipe de Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois sont allés à la rencontre des locataires.

«On a des gens qui nous ont dit qu’ils voulaient payer leur loyer, qu’ils ont essayé de toutes les manières pour essayer de le faire en allant même chercher des adresses sur le registraire des entreprises. Et ces gens-là se retrouvent quand même devant le TAL», poursuit M. Nadeau-Dubois.

QUEBEC — With Premier François Legault and his government describing conditions as a perfect storm, Quebec’s minister responsible for social services announced Thursday that the province will devote an additional $15.5 million for shelters to help unhoused people on the street make it through the winter.

McCrae is among a growing number of seniors who are impacted by evictions in the form of renovations or demolitions — and struggling to afford housing across Canada, according to CanAge, a national seniors' advocacy organization.

"Older people, particularly those with accessibility needs, are in a pinch like never before in the rental market," said Laura Tamblyn Watts, the CEO of CanAge.

Heavy machinery was at the site of a homeless encampment at the Vancouver foot of the Oak Street Bridge on Friday, as crews worked to enforce an order clearing people who were sheltering there.

Contractors hired by the province removed piles of refuse and several propane tanks, amid protests from housing activists.

“This housing crisis was not caused by unhoused people and it’s time to stop punishing unhoused people for existing and for this housing crisis,” Ryan Sudds, an organizer with Stop the Sweeps, told media.

“It took a pandemic to get this place to open,” said general director Tania Charron. “Because no one believed there was homelessness in the West Island. No-bo-dy.”

The number of people living in emergency shelters or on the streets surged in all regions of Quebec over the last four years but rose most sharply outside Montreal, a new report says.

Commissioned by the province’s Health Department, the report found that “visible” homelessness in Quebec increased by about 44 per cent between April 2018 and October 2022, and by 33 per cent in Montreal.

During Tuesday's study of Bill 31 on housing, QS MNA Andrés Fontecilla and PQ MNA Joël Arseneau tabled several amendments to extend the protection offered by the "Françoise David Act."

Among other things, they proposed lowering the age limit from 70 to 65 and reducing the length of employment required to benefit from this protection from ten to five years.

Housing in Quebec is becoming increasingly expensive and increasingly difficult to find.

Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows the housing crisis is worsening, both in terms of rental costs and availability.

The two also vigorously denounced Quebec's affordable housing program, the PHAQ, which replaced the Accès-Logis program. In two years, the PHAQ has only led to the construction of 46 housing units, none ready to receive occupants.

"Two years later, their program has resulted in zero housing units being built. The proof is in the pudding. The CAQ program doesn't work. It's a total failure and we're in the middle of a housing crisis. It's unacceptable. It's an embarrassing record," Nadeau-Dubois said.

Like every young person, homeless and at risk youth have a full spectrum of needs. At Dans la rue, they can find a multifaceted approach that addresses all aspects of their lives to help them get off the street and permanently transition away from high risk situations.

Federation des Maisons d'Hebergement Pour Femmes

Find a woman's shelter anywhere in Quebec.

Various services for the homeless.

Montreal's largest homelessness organization.

Welcome Hall Mission’s range of programs and services are transforming the lives of Montrealers in need every single day. Thanks to the generosity of donors, our beneficiaries have access to free groceries, emergency shelter, community resources, recovery and so much more!

Provides a safe environment where women can begin to rebuild their lives. We offer support and frontline services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis (Indigenous) women and children to promote their empowerment and independence. The NWSM is the only women’s shelter in Montreal that provides services exclusively to Indigenous women and their children. Women are offered an up to three month stay in one of 13 private rooms, many of which are capable of accommodating more than one person so that women may stay with their children.

There is a zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol at the shelter.

Young people who experience residential instability in WI use strategies such as couchsurfing, crowding and exchange of services making homelessness invisible to society. We call this phenomenon ‘hidden homelessness’

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Quebec has increased by a whopping 44 per cent since 2018, a new report has found.

In terms of sheer numbers, Montreal is by far the most affected, accounting for the majority of homeless people in Quebec.

Useful links to resources in the montreal area.

It is not just the number of evictions that is creating the crisis. An eviction is much more than a move across town; it is a life altering event that negatively affects many aspects of the tenant’s life. Once a tenant has an eviction on their record, their ability to find a new home is severely limited.3 They will often end up in poorer quality housing at a higher rent. Too often evicted tenants become homeless.

In 2018, the London Borough of Newham (LBN) commissioned LSE Housing and Communities to undertake an evaluation of their “Housing First” pilot project.

Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy is a community-based program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness across Canada. This program provides funding to urban, Indigenous, rural and remote communities to help them address their local homelessness needs.