Finance committee  Stable housing is the objective for assisting people who are homeless or in the processing of becoming homeless. However, some people who are having major difficulties and are in considerable distress wouldn't be prepared to go into social housing, even if units were available or for resale.

Finance committee  If I may, I don't like the word “clientele”. This is a diversified population. A few years ago, they were thought of as persons—mostly men—of a certain age who had alcohol problems. That's how they were viewed. Currently, this concerns increasing numbers of youths, minors, runaways, young adults and women.

Finance committee  It's not just a matter of a leaky roof; even the building's foundation may be collapsing. If we don't invest in aid for the homeless, there will be an even bigger gap between certain parts of society. There's a cost to that gap. I'm not an economist, and I couldn't tell you what the return on investment would be, but from the moment you help a person begin a process of achieving stable housing, regain power over his life, emerge from a survival situation, that person is going to integrate and reintegrate.

Finance committee  The first two phases took into account both infrastructure and necessary staff. The recurring aspect is important.

Finance committee  If the SCPI program isn't seen and perceived as recurring, there will definitely be a lot of initiatives that will have created infrastructures, such as entry-level housing for young people or young mothers who have been homeless, and so on, but we won't be able to operate those infrastructures because staff is needed to work with these people and to help them integrate or reintegrate.

Finance committee  In our view, an affordable dwelling isn't an average dwelling at $500 or $700 a month. The people we meet have incomes below those amounts and, if they're welfare or income security recipients, they have to...

Finance committee  The needs are highly diversified. They are a priority in the major urban centres, but we see that this is an emerging phenomenon in the regions. Municipalities like Sherbrooke and Saguenay support the SCPI program. This phenomenon is increasingly found in the regions. It's becoming more complex and diversified since we're seeing it in the regions.

Finance committee  To my knowledge, there has been no census across Quebec on the situation of homeless persons. A homeless person is considered to be a person who won't have a fixed address in the future, but that person also has related problems such as mental health or substance abuse problems.

Finance committee  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec represents 11 Quebec regional consultation committees that work with homeless people and 200 Quebec organizations that work with individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Like Mr.