Québec Solidaire pushing CAQ government to invest more to tackle homelessness

Québec Solidaire's Guillaume Cliche-Rivard during question period at the Québec National Assembly on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

Québec Solidaire (QS) is calling on François Legault’s government to renew funding for the Interdepartmental Action Plan on Homelessness (PAII).

The PAII, launched in 2021, will end on March 31. QS’s spokesperson on homelessness, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, says he does not understand why no action has been taken yet.

“How is it that these funds have not yet been renewed and that uncertainty still looms at the height of winter and the crisis?” he said in a news release issued Sunday.

The Réseau SOLIDARITÉ Itinérance du Québec (RSIQ) issued a press release on the matter Nov. 13.

The national homelessness coalition highlighted the impact of the Interdepartmental Action Plan on Homelessness since its launch in 2021, adding that it “has enabled organizations to implement crucial measures to prevent and combat homelessness.”

RISQ executive director Boromir Vallée Dore asked Social Services Minister Sonia Bélanger to renew the PAII in the 2025 economic update. This request was not granted.

“Waiting for the spring 2026 budget to renew the PAII means choosing to amplify the homelessness crisis,” he said. “Between the budget announcement and the arrival of funds on the ground, lives are at stake.”

The RSIQ also proposed a “30 per cent increase in investment by 2027” and assured the funds would curb the growth of homelessness in Quebec.

QS notes that in 2024, 108 people died while homeless in Quebec.

“We cannot let 2025 follow the same path. Every ministerial postponement risks costing human lives, unfortunately,” said Cliche-Rivard.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Dec. 7, 2025.