Why some Quebec towns are welcoming Mike Ward's tiny shelters — and why advocates for homeless people object

When it comes to housing the homeless, a tiny home is better than nothing — right?

Not quite, says Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.

After a Montrealer died of exposure — the second in under a month — comedian Mike Ward offered to donate 25 "tiny homes" to Montreal as temporary winter shelters for homeless people in the city.

Plante declined. Housing is a complex issue, said Montreal's mayor, and the most vulnerable need an entire ecosystem — including support workers and adapted services — not just a tiny structure in which to shelter from the cold.

Victoriaville, a city of 50,000 located 160 kilometres northeast of Montreal, doesn't share Montreal's reservations. Mayor Antoine Tardif recently accepted five of the tiny wooden shelters. Each is very basic: outfitted with a door, a bed, a mattress and a desk.

"It's certainly not a miracle solution," concedes Tardif. However, his city on the banks of the Nicolet River is experiencing an unprecedented spike in homelessness this winter.

"It will allow us to meet a need, temporarily," he said.

Victoriaville, in collaboration with local community organizations and health resources, is looking into more sustainable solutions, such as a permanent shelter. But that is "a longer-term solution," Tardif said, "for this new reality that we are facing."

Rising housing costs far from sole culprit

This "new reality" is a housing crisis that municipal leaders blame on the pandemic, and surging real estate prices and rents.

In Montreal, an estimated 4,000 people are homeless. The median housing price in the city has increased 59 per cent since 2017 — with a 20 per cent jump occurring between 2020 and 2021 alone. However, those who study the root causes of homelessness say rising housing costs are far from the only culprit.

"If you ask people who have become homeless what pushed them into homelessness … they will provide a lot of answers other than just, 'My housing was too expensive,'" said McGill psychiatry Prof. Eric Latimer, who researches mental health and homelessness.

He says that other drivers include addiction, an inability to pay rent due to job loss or other circumstances, conflict or ill-treatment from a partner, mental health issues, and more.

In Victoriaville, where the city and its partners opened a temporary shelter in December, the eight available beds are regularly filled.

Most people in the community have responded positively to the arrival of the tiny homes, said Tardif — offering to donate supplies and assist with their construction.

Drummondville, a city of 80,000 about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal, has also claimed some of Ward's homes. There, the shelters will be managed by Ensoleilvent, an organization that supports people experiencing homelessness and precarious living situations.

"I am delighted that Ensoleilvent is ensuring the well-being of citizens in need through the shelters offered by comedian Mike Ward," Drummondville Mayor Stéphanie Lacoste told CBC News in an email.

The city's existing shelters "are at maximum capacity," she said. "The need is immediate."

Not a cure-all

Victoriaville is co-ordinating the project in collaboration with Répit Jeunesse, a nonprofit which supports youth and adults in difficulty. The tiny shelters will be strategically placed in Parc des Forges, a municipal park which is less frequented by residents in the winter, said Lauriane Provost, Répit Jeunesse's clinical director.

There are toilets near the shelters, and those using the tiny homes will be given a mattress, blankets and sleeping bag, Provost said. The residents will have access to meals, just like those using the beds in the city's temporary accommodation unit, and they will receive the same level of support as those in the existing shelter, she said.

Provost said she agrees a tiny shelter is not a cure-all for homelessness.

"If it is treated as the only solution, we'll absolutely have problems," she said.

However, she said, "there are those for whom the shelters suit their needs, and others for whom the shelters do not."

Ward's donated structures are geared toward the most vulnerable: those who, for one reason or another, opt not to spend the night in a dormitory-style setting. This includes people with pets, for example, as in many dorm-style settings, pets aren't permitted, or couples who want to sleep together, said Provost. (There are few, if any, shelters that allow couples to share a bed, and no shelters for couples in greater Montreal.)

She said some people are also turned off by having to share space with a number of people in a single room.

'Patch on a system that is not delivering'

For people like Sam Watts, whose life's work is directed at helping those experiencing homelessness, the tiny shelters are nothing more than a temporary patch, equivalent to placing a bucket under a clogged, running sink rather than starting by unclogging the drain.

"It's yet another patch on a system that is not delivering what it needs to deliver," said Watts, the CEO of Welcome Home Mission, which most recently ran a pilot project aimed at helping 75 people dependent on shelters move into permanent housing.

"The management of people experiencing homelessness is a very complex phenomenon," he said.

"Where are they going to go? Who is going to oversee them? Who is going to provide security for them? Who is going to determine who gets into one and who doesn't?"

People in such dire straits need to be "accompanied along a pathway," supported by a variety of services to prevent them from "circulating endlessly, aimlessly, from resource to resource, not getting the help they need for a period of months, years."

He worries that temporary shelters like the ones Ward has offered up can quickly devolve into small, substandard communities.

My concern is that — and this has happened time and time again — what you build as a stopgap measure ends up becoming permanent.- McGill psychiatry Prof. Eric Latimer

"You want to make sure that you don't create ghettos," Watt says. "You just stigmatize people. That can be a problem."

"What we like to do is re-integrate somebody into a community, because ultimately, the root cause of homelessness is disconnection."

"Why would we encourage the development of responses that are anything less than a permanent, sustainable home?" Watts asks. "Isn't that what we're obligated to do as a society?"

Latimer, the McGill researcher who studies mental health and homelessness policies, echoes Watts' sentiments. He, too, rejects the tiny home model.

"My concern is that — and this has happened time and time again — what you build as a stopgap measure ends up becoming permanent."

"I think that what people experiencing homelessness want and should have is access to normal housing."