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Parc-Extension tenants and community groups held a vigil in memory of Manjeet Singh, a 42-year-old unhoused man who died on the streets in January. Dave Sidaway \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\nGaurav Sharma\u2019s voice broke with emotion as he recalled the last moments of Manjeet Singh\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
An unhoused migrant and father of two, Singh, 42, died in a Parc-Extension park in mid-January. He was found alone in the cold, Sharma said, near a closed municipal chalet where he usually sought warmth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of dreams. His family had a lot of dreams\u00a0\u2026 and he died because he could not afford expensive rent,\u201d said Sharma, an organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre.\u00a0\u201cWho is responsible for his death? The system was responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharma was among those who gathered outside the Villeray\u2013Saint-Michel\u2013Parc-Extension borough offices Tuesday evening to honour Singh\u2019s memory. They taped his photo to the building\u2019s columns and spoke of wanting his death to serve as a \u201cturning point\u201d and wake-up call.<\/p>\n
Parc-Extension tenants and community groups held a vigil in memory of Manjeet Singh, a 42-year-old unhoused man who died on the streets in January. Dave Sidaway \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n
Community groups say Singh was one of three unhoused people to die in Parc-Extension this winter. <\/p>\n
While the details of his death are still being confirmed, they say it highlights the lack of services in the neighbourhood\u200a: There is no local homeless shelter and no warming centres were open the night Singh died.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went to the park thinking the chalet could be open, but found it closed and had nowhere else to go,\u201d said Rose Ndjel, of the Table du Quartier de Parc-Extension.<\/p>\n
Ndjel said there has always been hidden homelessness in the neighbourhood, but the crisis has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic and services haven\u2019t kept pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no space in Parc-Extension where homeless people know they can go,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we need one\u00a0\u2026 because we have a lot of residents from South Asia who don\u2019t speak French or English and aren\u2019t comfortable going elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to those who knew him, Singh arrived in Montreal seeking asylum in 2018. He struggled to find work in recent years and had been sharing a small apartment with several others before a falling-out left him on the street.<\/p>\n
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Gaurav Sharma says a \u201cperfect storm of circumstances\u201d led to an unhoused man dying in Parc-Ex in January. Dave Sidaway \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n
Tenant rights advocates stressed Singh\u2019s situation was not an isolated case and said his death occurred against a broader backdrop of gentrification squeezing low-income tenants into untenable living situations.<\/p>\n
Amy Darwish, co-ordinator of the Comit\u00e9 d\u2019action de Parc-Extension, said her organization saw a 30-per-cent jump in the number of tenants requesting support last year alone.<\/p>\n
While the group has long helped people push back against negligent landlords, Darwish said there has been a shift in recent years toward assisting people facing abusive rent hikes or disguised evictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rents have gone through the roof,\u201d Darwish said. \u201cPeople are no longer even tenants anymore; they\u2019re occupants. They rent a room. They\u2019re not on the lease. They have no protections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darwish said that increased pressure on tenants\u200a, combined with the lack of homeless resources in the neighbourhood, created a \u201cperfect storm of circumstances\u201d that led to someone dying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can never happen again,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cWe need resources for the neighbourhood that are actually adapted to the needs and the realities of the people (living here).\u201d <\/p>\n
He had a lot of dreams. His family had a lot of dreams\u00a0\u2026 and he died because he could not afford expensive rent<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGaurav Sharma
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tImmigrant Workers Centre<\/p>\n
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Gaurav Sharma from the Immigrant Workers Centre reflects on the death of unhoused man Manjeet Singh. Dave Sidaway \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n
Contacted for this report, a borough spokesperson said that while there are no shelters in Parc-Extension, there is one in Villeray and another in Montreal North, which offers a shuttle service from the Parc m\u00e9tro station.<\/p>\n
A warming centre is also open in Ahuntsic, the borough said, though it\u2019s a roughly 50-minute walk from where Singh died. <\/p>\n
The borough did not specify why the chalet Singh regularly sought warmth in was closed, but noted it is not suitable to operate as a warming centre. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe death of Manjeet Singh is a sad reminder of the need to continue our collective efforts,\u201d the spokesperson wrote.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Quebec coroner\u2019s office announced it will hold a public inquiry into the deaths of five other unhoused Montrealers between September and March<\/a>. <\/p>\n The office confirmed this week that a coroner is also investigating the circumstances around Singh\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Sharma mentioned that Singh had hoped to eventually reunite with his wife and two young children, who are still in India. A modest funeral was held last week and groups are raising funds for the family<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like many others in the community, he added, Singh\u2019s family is struggling to understand how his death was allowed to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was preventable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n