Ladies and gentlemen committee members, my name is Pierre Gaudreau. I am the president of the Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec and the coordinator of the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal. We would like to thank you for hearing us on issues related to the next federal budget.
The Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec is an association comprising 13 homelessness associations from various regions of Quebec.
Before taking another look at the issues in the next budget, as we outlined in the brief we submitted, I would like to talk to you briefly about the homelessness situation in Quebec.
As some of you may have read in yesterday's edition of La Presse on pages 1, 2 and 3, we are now seeing the new faces of the homeless. The articles referred to men, baby-boomers, who have lost their jobs and who are now out in the street as a result of various personal problems that cause all kinds of people to be on the street.
In Quebec, we are talking about three aspects of homelessness. It has been said that we have seen an increase, something borne out unfortunately in the various shelters both in Montreal and in the other regions. It has also been said that there has been a deterioration, because the situation of the people, their states, lives and experience have caused them to go through greater difficulties. Obviously, there is a lack of housing, which applies to all of these people. Those are the features of homelessness, but there are also other problems that people are going through: mental health issues, drug addiction, legal problems, exclusion, and so forth.
The previous government of Quebec came up with a definition of homelessness which is very accurate because it does not tie homelessness to one issue alone. Indeed, there are all kinds of convergent causes that lead to homelessness, one reason weighing no more heavily than the others. As a result, the situations are very diverse. We are seeing more faces now. We are starting to see people from the cultural communities in Quebec, which was not the case previously. We are seeing more and more aboriginal people on the streets. As I said, this is not occurring only in Montreal, we see this happening in the other regions. This phenomenon is occurring in more and more cities, throughout the province. This week on Friday, October 19, the 23rd Nuit des sans-abri will be held in 27 cities and regions of Quebec to create more awareness and solidarity. Homelessness, both in Quebec and Canada, is therefore a significant issue.
A federal program was established further to a strategy adopted by the government in 1989. The program is now known as the Homelessness Partnering Strategy. The government renewed the program for five years in 2008, namely from 2009 to 2014. We are very pleased with this initiative taken by the government, which recognized the usefulness of this program and enables us to deal with various situations through a variety of solutions, including housing, shelter, intake and reintegration support.
This program also plays a vital role enabling organizations to establish social housing projects in cooperation with the Government of Quebec program. This is a very strong program because it is rooted in the community. It is the communities, as established through the government agreements, that determine what the needs are in Montreal, Gatineau or Quebec City.
We must underscore one negative aspect regarding this program. Its budget has been frozen since it was implemented in 2001. This sector is being asked to do more—and this is the case throughout Canada—to deal with a problem that is growing throughout the country and becoming increasingly costly. I am not talking so much about the costs incurred by people working in the sector. Rather, I am talking about the property costs. Setting up social housing projects, improving facilities, saving rooming houses, all costs a great deal of money.
The federal government's Homelessness Partnering Strategy is essential but it has not curbed the increase in the number of homeless people. When the program was set up, people said that not enough investment was going into social housing. I would like to point to another good move made by the government. From 2009 to 2011, the government's economic action plan included investments in social housing which led to the construction of social housing throughout the country, in Montreal and in the other regions.
We are therefore asking that the next budget include an increase from 20 to 50 million dollars in the Homelessness Partnering Strategy budget for Quebec for 2014, and that this money be provided over several years, in order to consolidate the activities of the sector. It is important that this announcement be made quickly because we have to continue pursuing our activities, maintain ties with people on the street, and consolidate the work of our organizations in order to get people off the street. Such an investment would be profitable for the government.
Stephen Gaetz has shown in his report, published in September, that the cost of homelessness is very big in Canada. It is between $4.5 billion and $6 billion per year. He was asking in the title of his report whether we could save money by doing the right thing. It has been shown that the answer is yes. In Quebec, in the network of groups working together and among people out on the street, we also say yes, and the next budget should go ahead in that way.
Thank you.