Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier announced new protocols for intervention homeless encampments including centralized monitoring, tolerance zones, perimeters and restrictions on belongings.<\/p>\n
At a press conference Friday, the mayors said the new rules was aimed to balance rights of unhoused individuals with public safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be clear, we are not going to make the camps permanent,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said. \u201cOur goal is to get Montrealers who are homeless off the streets in a sustainable way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez Ferrada added that the protocol brings a new approach for intervention even as the City worked on increasing housing, psychosocial and other services for those experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n
Fournier said Longueuil had been informally applying the approach for several years, but with the announcement the City was formalizing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking these guidelines public is essential: it allows everyone to know the rules and roles of each party, builds trust, and promotes harmonious coexistence,\u201d Fournier added.<\/p>\n
However, the new protocols do not rule out dismantlement of encampments even though the City\u2019s public consultation body (OCPM) had recommended against them last year.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The new protocols) establish that forced displacement must remain a measure of last resort, in cases of imminent threat to public safety,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
The protocols rely on close collaboration among several agencies: \u201cmunicipal services, community organizations, police and fire departments, public health authorities, CISSS\/CIUSSS, and various institutional partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monitoring tool, tolerance zones in Montreal<\/p>\n
Under the new protocol, Montreal will create a \u201ccentralized monitoring tool\u201d for coordinating interventions by City officials, something Martinez Ferrada had promised on the campaign trail last fall.<\/p>\n
It may also designate tolerance zones in boroughs and downtown where encampments would be allowed.<\/p>\n
The City said it will focus on harm reduction and voluntary participation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protocol establishes that the relocation of a camp is an exceptional measure, used only as a last resort, particularly for reasons of personal safety,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
The City will also assess encampment sites and develop a plan with health and community partners.<\/p>\n
The protocol, however, is not a bylaw and the City will have discretion to enforce regulations.<\/p>\n
Perimeters, restrictions on size in Longueuil<\/p>\n
In Longueuil, encampments cannot be setup within 250 metres of schools, daycares, women\u2019s shelters or senior residences.<\/p>\n
Only five tents or five people can be part of an encampment site located on public land.<\/p>\n
An individual will only be allowed one tent and one bicycle \u201cto prevent the accumulation of belongings\u201d and tents cannot be sublet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier announced new protocols for intervention homeless encampments including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-488187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}