Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Vice-chairs and members of the committee, good afternoon.
First, I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear that you extended to Entrée chez soi Brome—Missisquoi. I would like to extend special thanks to Mr. Villeneuve, the member for our riding.
Our organization's mission is to support people living with mental health challenges in their own communities. We promote the independence of our members and support their ability to take action. We see ourselves as agents of social change and hope. It is in my capacity as director of this organization, and as a daily witness to the humanitarian crisis unfolding on the ground, that I am addressing you today.
Homelessness is no longer an exclusively urban phenomenon; it is now hitting our regions, our regional county municipalities, or RCMs, and our rural communities hard. To address this, we must adapt our tools.
One such tool is the Reaching Home program, one of the best federal programs offered in recent years. Its flexibility is remarkable. It allows communities to work together and identify their own priorities, particularly by not imposing innovation at all costs as a requirement. It allows for the continuity of structural projects that support people over the long term. However, its main shortcoming lies in the division of funding between the “designated communities” and “rural and remote homelessness”, or RRH, components.
My region, Brome—Missisquoi, falls under the RRH component. For the entire Estrie region, with the exception of Sherbrooke, the amounts received are significantly lower than those of a designated community, yet the needs are just as pressing, if not more so. In rural areas, the population dispersion and lack of basic infrastructure contribute to higher costs for interventions. We can no longer settle for microprojects or the distribution of grocery gift cards, which do not provide sufficient long-term support.
To achieve zero homelessness, we must build sustainable infrastructure. Our first recommendation would be to abolish the rigid term “designated communities” and instead revise the distribution of funding based on natural catchment areas and the actual proportion of needs within the RCMs.
Our second recommendation would be to significantly increase funding for physical infrastructure, bricks and mortar, which is a major blind spot in current public and private budgets.
Let's turn to housing and support for housing stability. Social and community housing is the cornerstone of this support. In Quebec, the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain estimates the shortfall at 150,000 subsidized housing units. Here in Brome-Missisquoi, the 2021 census revealed that nearly 20,000 people were eligible for income-based subsidized housing, while only 665 units were available in social and community housing. Furthermore, 21% of renters in our RCM spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
The federal government must urgently reinvest massively in public construction models, as it did in the 1980s. But be warned: Simply providing a roof over one's head is not enough. Moving from the street to a closed, fixed and restrictive space can generate significant anxiety for people experiencing homelessness. Without support, their instinct is to return to what is familiar, namely, the street.
Our third recommendation would be to systematically fund services that support housing stability, with guidance to help them make this transition successfully, just as support is provided to a military member transitioning to civilian life, to an employee retiring, or even to a child becoming a teenager. Solutions must be varied, including rooming houses, transitional housing and supervised apartments, in order to respect the freedom of choice of unhoused individuals.
Third, let's discuss mental health disorders combined with homelessness. More than one in two people experiencing homelessness lives with a diagnosed mental health disorder, not to mention those who remain undiagnosed. Housing is a major determinant of health. The stress of being unable to pay rent causes anxiety. A psychotic episode can lead to eviction. Extreme heat waves with no way to cool off exacerbate symptoms and interfere with medication. It's a vicious cycle: living on the street worsens mental health, and worsening mental health leads back to the street. Added to this are persistent prejudices from landlords during viewings and stigma from neighbours.
Our third recommendation would be to create flexible funding envelopes dedicated to mental health disorders, addiction crises and housing crises, to be managed by frontline workers who know the faces of this distress.
Fourth, there is an urgent need for an intergovernmental truce. I must mention a major obstacle: overlapping jurisdictions and jurisdictional disputes, particularly in Quebec. To receive federal funding, Quebec organizations must obtain authorization under the Act respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif, Bill M‑30, which leads to administrative delays of approximately eight weeks—and that's when the funding process isn't simply stalled for two or three years while the various levels of government reach an agreement.
The field should never bear the brunt of political friction. This leads to our fifth recommendation: that the federal and provincial governments enter into a permanent agreement to exempt funds intended for vulnerable populations from the delays caused by Bill M‑30, and that the federal government refrain from imposing rigid sector-specific conditions, allowing communities to decide their own priorities.
In conclusion, people experiencing homelessness are full-fledged citizens. They have the right to dignity, safety and hope. Give us the means to act effectively in our communities.
Thank you for listening. I will be pleased to answer your questions.