Coats will be donated to the Maison du Père unhoused shelter, which says it is responding to a rapidly worsening homelessness crisis.
As temperatures plunge, four “walls of kindness” are now open around Montreal for people to donate winter coats to those in need. The initiative, run by non-profit second-hand store operator Renaissance, is in its third year and will run from Nov. 13 to Dec. 1.
Renaissance is donating the coats to the Maison du Père, a shelter for unhoused people. Each wall is equipped with hooks where people can hang new or used adult winter coats. Renaissance staff will collect the coats twice a day over the course of the campaign.
“We are very happy, very excited that we are the partner for this year,” said Lizette Flores, executive director of the Maison du Père foundation.
The coats will go to unhoused people with inadequate winter protection, something Flores said risks seriously worsening their health.
“With a simple gift of a coat, you can be contributing to bettering the health of a person,” she said.
Flores said recent years have been particularly hard, with the number of unhoused people in Montreal increasing dramatically.
Housing unaffordability is now the main driver of homelessness, Flores said, surpassing other causes like addiction and mental illness.
“It’s as simple as eviction, as not being able to pay your rent, so everybody is at risk,” she said.
While Maison du Père can respond to an emergency situation — someone losing their housing — Renaissance can help further down the line by providing employment, said Renaissance Executive Director Éric St-Arnaud.
The issues each organization responds to are connected, Flores said.
“If you lose your employment … then you’re more at risk of losing your house and when you lose your house it’s more difficult to find employment,” she said.
“Our mission is to help individuals to integrate into the workforce,” St-Arnaud said, but the broader mission of “helping individuals as much as we can,” is the force behind the campaign.
“At the beginning you need a roof, you need to eat and you need to be warm,” St-Arnaud said.
Montrealers can donate their coats at these four intersections:
- D’Iberville St. and Masson St. in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie
- St. Catherine St. E. and Bourbonnière Ave. in Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
- Ontario St. E. and St-Timothée St. in Ville-Marie
- St-Viateur St. W. and Clark St. in Plateau-Mont-Royal
Hats and mittens are also welcome, St-Arnaud said.
Renaissance says it collected 2,519 coats in 2023 and around 1,000 in 2022.