Homelessness: the organization Le Local, important for Quebec police

The picture of the Lower Town district could change again with the closure of a resource as valuable as Local Center-Ville, scheduled for Friday morning.

A total of 450 people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness visited the area this year. All these people will find themselves without this resource, while they are accepted unconditionally.

A low-threshold organism, we need at least one. Some organizations have standards. An organization like Local is importantsaid Sergeant Robert Dion of the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ), a member of the MULTI team.

Community policing

The MULTI team was created in the spring of 2020 to have local police patrolling sectors that attract weaker clients. Consisting of 30 police officers and 3 sergeants, the team focuses most of its efforts on the Saint-Roch district, more precisely, the Saint-Roch church forecourt.

Sergeant Dion has been patrolling for over 20 years and specializes in interventions with marginalized people. A large part of his job is to direct people experiencing homelessness to appropriate resources.

Closing Local Center-Ville was one less tool for him. Police officers accustomed to patrolling the neighborhood are united in the fact that this resource needs to be replaced quickly.

We hope that Quebec City and the CIUSSS find a solution, because we need that. In a city like Quebec this is a minimumadded Frédéric Giguère, constable of the MULTI team.

Mental health interventions are still on the rise

The Saint-Roch district requires patrol seven days a week. On average, the police intervene 16 times a day with vulnerable people struggling with mental health problems. Most of these interventions were concentrated in the Lower Town.

Of these 16 day-to-day interventions, half required assistance from the Clinical Support and Residential Program (PECH). This year the SPVQ seek organizational assistance 2,970 times, an increase of 8.5% compared to 2020.

In the face of these statistics, the police want to be mindful of the importance of the organizations around them.

” We don’t hope to save everyone, but we want to try to create an effective social safety net to catch as many as possible. We have a part to play, but organizations also have a huge one. “

In addition, the police service will announce next week that it is partnering with PECH compiled for another year to guide peace officials in decision-making surrounding the application of Act with respect for the protection of people whose state of mind presents a danger to themselves or others.