What possible motivation could a homeless person have for getting off the streets when the first thing getting an apartment does is make you eligible for jail time for unpaid fines which themselves are an inevitable fact of homeless life? And when does the City actually get it’s act together on the issue and realize that perhaps 50% or more of the homeless in the city have psychiatric issues?
A stupid practice
Man, does the system look foolish when it comes to dealing with homeless people who create nuisances in the métro or Montreal’s streets. It treats them exactly the same way as it would ordinary citizens: It gives them tickets that carry fines.
That makes sense in theory. As Mayor Gérald Tremblay says, “We can’t have two classes of citizens.” Granted, it would be wrong for authorities to give a ticket to Joe Commuter who smokes in the métro but to look the other way at a homeless person doing the same thing. The smoke is just as objectionable regardless of who’s puffing.
But in practice this even-handed approach is nonsense.
An eye-opening study published this week shows that these tickets burden destitute people with fines that they can never pay. Authorities every year issue about 6,000 tickets (about a quarter of the total) to homeless people for breaking city bylaws or Société de transport de Montréal rules. (Most offences are for drinking alcohol in a public space, loitering or doing such things in the métro as sleeping, smoking or not paying a fare.) (more…)
