Montreal Cuts Funding for Services Helping Homeless Inuit

Intervention worker with the Indigenous Support Workers Project (ISWP) Pierre Parent, who is mixed Cree from the James Bay area, has been apart of a program helping get homeless people off the streets. He says the ISWP was able to relocate 12 Indigenous people from the streets to permanent apartments.

Two people who are in apartments now work with Parent to help people on the streets of Milton Parc. He says this helps those recovering from addiction and trauma to reintegrate them into working class society.

Parent told Local 514 of how residential schools, forced displacement, sexual violence and other forms of colonialism has caused intergenerational trauma among Inuit. He says this trauma can be handled in different ways – not always ones that are conducive to healing, including using drugs or alcohol. However, the ISWP provides support for those experiencing colonial trauma and homelessness.

Parent says homelessness has increased among Inuit during the pandemic. He said with homelessness, deterioration happens quickly.

Parent says the ISWP provided services, such as trailers, warming tents and housing for Indigenous homeless people, however at the end of March this funding was cut.

Parent said after another Inuit person died in the fall in downtown Montreal, the City of Montreal gave funding, providing a warming tent and the ability to rehouse people. He said as of March 31, the ISWP is back to only working on the streets. Parent said the city is making decisions without consulting those who run services for the homeless.

Parent, who has had experience in a federal penitentiary, says restorative justice is key to not stripping Indigenous people from their culture and providing a healing-focused approach.