Staff at homeless shelters in Montreal have been discouraged by what they see as over policing and an otherwise apathetic government response, homeless people are turning to mutual aid in greater numbers to survive the pandemic. So what does this look like?

Local 514 looks into mutual aid at shelters in Montreal and what workers and the homeless are asking for from both the municipal and provincial governments.

David Chapman, director of homeless shelter Resilience Montreal, said that half of his staff has COVID-19. Instead of Montreal Public Health sending more staff to help, he said they send people to enforce social distancing, but this is not what is needed to keep services running.

As a result of gaps in support due to outbreaks, Chapman says some of the clients at Resilience are volunteering.

John Tessier, coordinator at shelter The Open Door, said that clients have been volunteering for a long time to help keep services running smoothly. He says there are often two workers for shift, but ideally the Open Door needs 3-5 staff members working per shift. He hopes the government would provide more money to do so.

Nakuset, executive director of the Native Women's Shelter Montreal (NWSM) said that the NWSM has been lucky to avoid an outbreak during the fifth wave, but has called out the provincial government for not providing the same amount of services to support COVID-positive homeless people that they did in the fist and second wave. She says this as two homeless people died on the streets of Montreal in January, the deaths were just less than two weeks apart.

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