Results of homeless census expected next week

The most recent head count of the homeless in Montreal was taken last April, but for some reason the results haven’t yet been released. They’re expected next week, and Pierre-André Normandin tells us the numbers are predicted to have risen since the only other such census, taken in 2015.

It wouldn’t surprise me. As I’ve recounted before, I volunteered for the 2015 census, and by chance it was an atypical evening downtown. A big student march was also taking place that night, with a pervasive police presence on the ground as well as helicopter surveillance, so that a lot of folks would’ve been lying low and not answering nosy questions from people with clipboards. The resulting numbers in 2015 were bound to have been on the low side for this reason.