Homeless Families Risk Having Children Confiscated if They Need to Isolate for COVID-19

Homeless families with children face the risk of having their children taken by child services if the family becomes COVID-positive.

Nakuset, executive director from the Native Women’s Shelter Montreal, says the city needs to provide spaces for homeless families to isolate.

The Native Women’s Shelter Montreal houses women, families with children and sometimes single mothers. They have been lucky enough to avoid an outbreak during the fifth wave. If a client of the Native Women’s Shelter Montreal tests positive for COVID-19, they are sent to one of the city's locations where homeless people can isolate, one of the locations being a stadium near Pie-IX metro station and another being a hotel.

Nakuset says if the children need to be relocated from the Native Women’s Shelter Montreal, the children's location must be approved by Montreal's child welfare centre Batshaw Youth and Family Centres. Nakuset says children are not allowed to isolate at the locations the city has provided and it is unlikely Batshaw may approve another location.

Nakuset says, as a result, children run the risk of being confiscated by their families or mothers by Batshaw. 

She says the city needs to provide more safe spaces for homeless families to isolate so that children are not separated from their families. 

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