{"id":900236,"date":"2026-09-18T08:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/900236\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T08:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:44:12","slug":"discovery-of-baby-in-homeless-camp-highlights-quebecs-housing-crisis-ahead-of-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/900236\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery of baby in homeless camp highlights Quebec\u2019s housing crisis ahead of election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A small homeless camp outside a department store in Montreal in January, 2021.Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The discovery of a one-year-old child at a homeless encampment in Montreal has put the city\u2019s worsening housing crisis in the spotlight of Quebec\u2019s provincial election campaign.<\/p>\n

Montreal police said an investigation is underway after officers located a woman and the child at an encampment on Notre-Dame Street in the city\u2019s east end.<\/p>\n

The discovery has prompted Quebec\u2019s political leaders to weigh in on how to address homelessness, with opposition leaders criticizing the government\u2019s response and Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec Leader Christine Fr\u00e9chette calling for governments and other partners to work together.<\/p>\n

Montreal police said they received a call about the woman and child on Sept. 11 in the borough of Mercier\u2014Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.<\/p>\n

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Police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers located them after conducting a search and noticed what they described as concerning elements.<\/p>\n

Brabant said police were collaborating with Quebec\u2019s youth protection agency on the investigation. He said the infant\u2019s health and safety were not at risk.<\/p>\n

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada called the situation \u201cheartbreaking\u201d and a \u201cwake-up call\u201d in a social media post Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

She said Montreal could no longer wait for the Quebec government to address what she described as a provincewide problem and said the city would take action at the Notre-Dame site.<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e9chette said she had spoken with the Montreal mayor and wanted the province and city to work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks my heart. I\u2019m a mother first and foremost, and I can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Fr\u00e9chette told reporters in Sainte-Julie, in the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie region, east of Montreal.<\/p>\n

She said governments, municipalities, the private sector and community organizations all have a role to play in addressing homelessness, adding her government is developing a provincewide plan.<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e9chette also said authorities need a clearer picture of who is living in encampments and whether other children are among them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose children really have to be taken out of that environment,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s not an environment for children at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec solidaire Leader Ruba Ghazal said she was \u201cextremely shocked\u201d by the discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think that this child ended up in an encampment with a family living in an unimaginably vulnerable situation, just talking about it gives me chills,\u201d Ghazal told reporters in Sherbrooke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in 2026, in a wealthy Quebec, and for things to have reached this point is completely unacceptable and shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghazal said tackling homelessness requires investment in housing and community organizations.<\/p>\n

She also criticized the spending plan in Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Paul St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s platform, saying she found \u201czero dollars in infrastructure investment for housing\u201d in the plan.<\/p>\n

But St-Pierre Plamondon, who represents the riding where the Notre-Dame encampment is located, said homelessness would be his \u201csocial priority\u201d if his party forms government.<\/p>\n

The PQ leader said the situation was \u201cembarrassing\u201d for a wealthy society and accused the CAQ government of lacking political will on homelessness and other social issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t accept this,\u201d St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters in Longueuil, south of Montreal \u201dIt\u2019s a loss of control by the CAQ on this issue over the past few years, and it\u2019s very sad.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Liberal Leader Charles Milliard also said he was concerned about the situation but stopped short of calling for the encampment to be dismantled.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Lac-M\u00e9gantic, Milliard called on elected officials to intervene and said the City of Montreal has as important a role to play as the provincial government.<\/p>\n

Conservative Leader \u00c9ric Duhaime also called it \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d for a child to be living in an encampment \u201cin a society like ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is saddened. We have to have compassion for the people who live there and we have to find solutions, but an encampment is not a solution, it\u2019s not alternative housing,\u201d Duhaime told reporters in Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivi\u00e8re-du-Sud, in Quebec\u2019s Chaudi\u00e8re-Appalaches region.<\/p>\n

He said governments should work to eliminate homeless encampments<\/a> across the province as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Montreal\u2019s official Opposition, Projet Montr\u00e9al, called on the mayor to use 30 modular housing units it says are currently sitting unused and give priority to homeless parents and pregnant women.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Ericka Alneus said the city acquired 90 modular units under the previous Projet Montr\u00e9al administration, 30 of which have yet to be put into use.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding a baby in an encampment is deeply upsetting. All of Quebec is shaken,\u201d Alneus wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe modular units aren\u2019t a perfect solution and will never replace real housing,\u201d Alneus wrote, adding they could provide families with quicker access to services and help finding permanent housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A small homeless camp outside a department store in Montreal in January, 2021.Graham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,1008,66],"class_list":["post-900236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-pleasemod","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900236","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=900236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}