{"id":489162,"date":"2026-02-21T04:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489162\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:30:16","slug":"montreal-promises-new-approach-to-homeless-with-encampment-tolerance-zones-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489162\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal promises new approach to homeless with encampment \u2018tolerance zones\u2019 &#8211; Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>The City of\u00a0Montreal\u00a0is changing its approach to unhoused people, promising to tolerate some homeless encampments instead of dismantling them.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada unveiled the city\u2019s new protocol on Friday, saying camps are not a long-term solution, but dismantling them often causes trauma for vulnerable people and usually results in displacing the problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDismantling as we have seen in the past does not work,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are not creating a path or a road map out of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>The city said its new policy creates \u201ctolerance zones\u201d on city-owned land, where encampments would be permitted if they meet certain safety rules. The framework focuses on dignity and respect for the rights for those experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUltimately, we agree that the road map is to get people out of the camps,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said. \u201cBut building transitional housing and emergency shelters takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Instead of dismantling an encampment, the city says it would relocate a camp in the event of a security or nuisance issue.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11675260\/alberta-danielle-smith-immigration-constitution-referendum\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771648215_749_Still-2026-02-19-18h26m31s819.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tDanielle Smith promises Alberta referendum over immigration, Constitution changes\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11676795\/tumbler-ridge-school-shooter-chatgpt-account-flagged-banned-openai\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771648216_582_Jesse-Strang-Van-Rootselaar-Photo-1.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tTumbler Ridge shooter\u2019s ChatGPT activity flagged internally 7 months before tragedy\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a humanitarian crisis on our hands, we must be tolerant, but we must be tolerant within a framework that also respects the real security issues of local residents,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to give ourselves time to resolve an issue (homelessness) for which we have no magic wand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Montreal\u2019s new plan takes some inspiration from more elaborate rules in Longueuil,\u00a0Que., on the South Shore, where encampments are limited to five tents and prohibited from being within 250 metres of a school, daycare, seniors residence or women\u2019s shelter.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size The City of\u00a0Montreal\u00a0is changing its approach to unhoused people, promising&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,186775,2338],"class_list":["post-489162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-homeless-encampment","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489162","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=489162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}