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“The solution to homelessness is social housing, community support and appropriate healthcare”

by Lorraine Carpenter

The City of Montreal announced that the social intervention squad EMMIS is being expanded from 4 to all 19 of the city’s boroughs in 2025.

The City of Montreal will soon expand its social intervention squad EMMIS (Équipe mobile de médiation et d’intervention sociale) to the entire city.

Since 2021, EMMIS has been operating in collaboration with the police to assist the city’s homeless population in the Ville-Marie and Sud-Ouest boroughs as well as within the metro system. The project was expanded to the Plateau and Hochelaga last year.

The Quebec Public Security Ministry and the city are investing an additional $50-million in the project to increase the number of EMMIS workers from 32 to 90, deploy them across all of Montreal’s 19 boroughs and set up a 211 hotline, which is due to be operational in January 2025.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante made the announcement in a press conference on Tuesday, telling reporters that EMMIS isn’t the end game. In a TV interview yesterday, Plante said, “The solution to homelessness is social housing with community support and appropriate healthcare,” with more investment needed from all levels of government.

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by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.