Community workers set up encampment to protest city's dismantling of tents for the unhoused

And Nick De Josier, I I know that you set up yesterday. You’ve got about a dozen tents here. You set up in the rain. It was cold last night. What was your first night like? Like you said, it was cold, it was humid. It was not very fun to be there. We had the privilege to choose to be there. A lot of people don’t have that. So when they are in situation of homelessness, they have to do what with what they have. So, yeah, and and So what is the reason that you felt you needed to take this stand? That you needed to create your own encampment? Well, there’s a lot of things going on in Montreal. As a worker in a place to take care of homelessness, all winter I had to welcome people and people were coming to me for a bed and I was obliged to tell them that all places were full. It’s a very difficult situation for a worker, but it’s even more a drama for people that we have to refer to the street. And when these people, because there’s no more shelter, there’s no more. There’s a housing crisis. When they find a way to take care of themselves and find a place to sleep in a tent, they are in a situation when they are not legal. So we we move. The city asked them to move and to go elsewhere, elsewhere. But where do you want them to go? I know that the city was here today and you were having conversations. How did you find those conversations went? I think a lot of people in the city wants, everybody wants a better condition for homeless people. It’s a complicated matter that not only ask response from the city, we ask the city for tolerance for encampment, but more than that we ask the government for solution, long term solution. We need good shelter, safe shelter for everyone that are adapted, but we also need housing and that they if people come into homelessness but are not able to get out, like there’s just more and more people and it’s going to even if most are not visible, you’re going to see more and more in the city. And I think it’s a problem for the city and in homelessness. We have a tendency to answer in an emergency mode, but we have to do more. We have to think long term and real solutions, yeah. But in the short term, if you’re asking that people should be able to put up a tent if they have nowhere else to go, the city says that it’s a fire hazard and it reduces their dignity as well. What do you respond to that? A lot of people that I accompany in and campaign, they want housing, they want to go somewhere they just can’t. So it’s the only place they have. They are really aware of the what will make them an expulsion. But I can give you tons of example of people that are there and do not bother anyone. They take care of their surrounding, their super calm and even people that go to do the dismantlement are like, we’re sorry, we’re just doing our job. So what we ask is stall insurance for these people. The the risk, the biggest risk is a risk for them. And how long are you going to stay here? We don’t know yet. What I can tell you is that we are privileged to choose to be there, but we all have things to do outside. We really want to get the population and the media attention on what’s going on, but we have other things to do outside of it. We have to. We are all worker in homelessness. We have to continue what we do. So we will not stay forever. Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. So welcome. Thank you.