Opinion: Quebec should enact a right-to-housing law
Concerted action during recent cold snap averted disaster for unhoused people, but long-term solutions are needed.
The recent extreme cold snap, however short-lived, could have been disastrous for city’s growing population of unhoused people. The opposite happened. The community and governmental sectors worked together seamlessly to protect our city’s most vulnerable people from this severe weather event. Non-profit organizations allowed residents to stay in their facilities for longer hours. The City of Montreal and local Montreal health agency, the CIUSSS Centre-Sud, opened up 100 additional spaces to provide overnight accommodations to people with no other place to turn. Even hospital ERs were on call to not discharge unhoused patients into the cold weather. Everything worked last weekend.