{"id":490184,"date":"2026-02-21T15:35:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490184\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T15:35:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:35:53","slug":"montreal-promises-new-approach-to-homeless-with-encampment-tolerance-zones-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490184\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal promises new approach to homeless with encampment \u2018tolerance zones\u2019 \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 The City of Montreal is changing its approach to unhoused people, promising to tolerate some homeless encampments instead of dismantling them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u201cDismantling as we have seen in the past does not work,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA homeless encampment of tents are seen near the highway in the west end of Montreal on Tuesday, Dec.10, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not creating a path or a road map out of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\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

Instead of dismantling an encampment, the city says it would relocate a camp in the event of a security or nuisance issue.<\/p>\n

\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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to give ourselves time to resolve an issue (homelessness) for which we have no magic wand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s new plan takes some inspiration from more elaborate rules in Longueuil, Que., 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

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 The City of Montreal is changing its approach to unhoused people, promising to tolerate some homeless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-490184","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\/490184","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=490184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}