After weeks of warning cuts to federal funding would force them to reduce or limit services come April 1, organizations supporting unhoused people in Montreal learned Wednesday the money is finally coming.
The federal government announced $125 million — more than $13 million of which is for Montreal — is being unlocked through the renewal of a program aimed at addressing homelessness.
While community organizations welcomed the funding, they said the last-minute reversal nonetheless illustrates the uncertainty they face every year.
“Of course we’re happy — we really need this money,” said Paméla Simard, who runs the housing program at RAP Jeunesse. “(But) it can’t go on like this. We can’t keep reliving this every year.”
The new funding was announced by federal housing and infrastructure minister Gregor Robertson after a meeting with elected officials and community organizations at city hall.
The money is part of a federal program titled Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative that was launched in 2024 but was not expected to be renewed for this year.
Robertson said the program was initially intended as a “short-term” measure but noted the homelessness crisis has continued across the country and front-line organizations need support.
Several community groups that work with Montreal’s unhoused population had spoken out in recent weeks, warning that the program ending could have dire consequences on the ground.
Last week, following the deaths of two unhoused people, Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada delivered a tearful plea to higher levels of government about the need for more funding to fight the crisis.
“Montreal needs help,” the mayor had said. “Montreal needs the other levels of government to be present … because otherwise we won’t make it.”
On Wednesday, Martinez Ferrada said her administration has been talking with the federal government about renewing the program for the last month.
“Of course, we would have wanted the money to come earlier,” Martinez Ferrada said when asked about the timing.
Martinez Ferrada said it’s her understanding the announcement doesn’t affect $24.8 million the provincial government has earmarked to make up for the federal program ending.
The mayor noted the city will work with community organizations to ensure services are maintained and that she understands how the uncertainty around the program has been “extremely difficult” for them.
The Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal, which represents more than 100 groups that support unhoused people, welcomed the “necessary, albeit belated” announcement.
The group said many organizations in the city had already laid off staff or modified hours ahead of Wednesday, assuming the program was not being renewed.
“We urge the federal government to begin working immediately … to ensure this situation does not recur next year or in subsequent years,” the network wrote on social media.
Simard, for her part, said RAP Jeunesse only learned the funding was being renewed after being invited to city hall for the meeting and announcement.
Her organization oversees the city’s second modular housing complex for unhoused people, which opened in Ahuntsic-Cartierville in February.
Though the complex can accommodate up to 30 people, insufficient funding has forced them to limit it to 17 people so far.
It was not yet clear to Simard when the new funding would be available, since it needs to pass through the provincial government before being allocated to the community sector.
The uncertainty surrounding the federal program, she added, is just a small glimpse of what organizations face each year without predictable funding.
“I’ve been in community work for almost 15 years, and it’s like this every single year ,” she said. “We can’t take it anymore.”
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