The Quebec government announced Friday it will allocate $28 million in emergency funds to support organizations and resources fighting homelessness across the province. Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon announced the funds at Accueil Bonneau in Montreal, a shelter and organization supporting people experiencing homelessness. It’s the first major announcement since the Parti Québécois formed a minority government on Oct. 5. “The face of homelessness has changed. It now affects everyone and every region of Quebec. We are facing a complex problem that will require action in several areas and a collective effort,” said St-Pierre Plamondon. The funding will support 200 projects covering winter emergency measures in 16 regions across Quebec. It will add more than 1,000 emergency beds in warming centers and in emergency and transitional housing over the next five months. The announcement comes after Les 2 Rives local newspaper reported the death of a recently unhoused woman, 66, in Sorel-Tracy, Que. According to the newspaper, she was found unconscious in the washroom of a ferry terminal at the beginning of October. St-Pierre Plamondon extended his condolences on social media and at the announcement, adding that her death was preventable. “Another person experiencing homelessness has died shortly after becoming homeless,” said St-Pierre Plamondon. “I wish to extend my condolences to her family and loved ones. This death could have been prevented if the available resources had been commensurate with the scale of the problem we’re facing.” Montreal most affected by crisis According to a survey conducted in April 2025 by the Quebec government, more than 12,000 people were experiencing homelessness across the province. This represents an increase of about 20 per cent from the last data in October 2022. Montreal had the largest number of people experiencing homelessness in Quebec. St-Pierre Plamondon said a minimum of $18 million of the total allocation will be given to the Montreal. Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada was at the announcement. She was joined alongside Stéphane Paquet, Minister responsible for the Metropolis and Camille Pellerin-Forget, the minister delegate for Mental Health and Social Services. “We have a premier dedicated to the homeless crisis that we are living with, and that political posture is a huge difference, and it gives us a lot of hope that we are in a real change in posture,” Martinez Ferrada said. In October, two other people experiencing homelessness died in Quebec. A woman in her 50s died in a fire at a homeless encampment in Montreal North, and a 59-year-old man was found unconscious behind a building in Granby, where he later died in hospital. A few weeks earlier, a baby was found in a homeless encampment in Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough. The baby was taken into the care of Quebec youth protection officials. Following the deaths, Martinez Ferrada unveiled the city’s plans to help fight homelessness. The plan involves nine new warming centres across seven boroughs — Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Ville-Marie, the Plateau, LaSalle, Verdun, Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Saint-Laurent. The new centres will bring Montreal’s emergency and transitional shelter spaces to 3,000. St-Pierre Plamondon promised more solutions to fighting homelessness at a major summit that he plans to hold at the beginning of 2027. He said this funding is in addition to the $18 million already allocated, totalling $46 million. During the election campaign, he pledged to invest $1 billion to combat homelessness in the province, aiming to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness in Quebec by half by 2030.
