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183 points
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This is from the city where it’s illegal to be homeless. One man even collected over $100,000 in fines for being homeless.

Yeah, that’ll help.

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111 points

Man that sounded wild to me, so I dug around a bit and it’s fucking true. Although the amount is closer to $110,000 it’s still insane.

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94 points

Hey, we heard you can’t afford a house, so we’re charging you fines in the amount of what it would have cost to buy a house…we’re so cool! We solved homelessness! Because now if you want to be homeless, it actually costs more to NOT buy a house. So you may as well just buy a house!

We did it guys! We ended the concept of homelessness! High five!

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47 points

I mean why don’t the homeless just buy a house? Are they stupid?

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19 points

we’re charging you fines in the amount of what it would have cost to buy a house

Oh how I wish I could buy a house for that kind of money. You should go look at what housing costs in Canadian cities.

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9 points
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Yeah, it was from awhile ago. I couldn’t remember if it was one or two hundred thousand. I’ve corrected my comment to be more accurate. Here’s an article on it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-homeless-man-100k-fines-1.3473707

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16 points

What happens if the man does not pay? Will they put him in jail?

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21 points

In the ultimate act of irony… Maybe they’ll put him in a house.

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47 points

Canada does not have debtor’s jail. Nothing will really happen except that more fines will keep racking up. No collection agency is going to take on a homeless person’s debt, so eventually those debts will just disappear, assuming he makes no effort to pay them off.

In the meantime, if he tries to escape homelessness, it’s a lot harder nowadays to find an apartment with a landlord that doesn’t check your credit, and 100k+ in unpaid debts looks really bad.

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-8 points
Deleted by creator
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26 points

Aaaah, I love living in a capitalist hellscape

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3 points
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It’s not “being homeless” that is illegal, though. It’s drinking in public, begging or sleeping in the metro. And it sure is tough not staying in the metro during winter. There are some organisms that can provide shelter, but not enough for everyone, and it usually cost a couple dollars, which not everyone have everyday. And it’s a real problem on both sides, as the metro was not meant to become a shelter for the homeless, and people have been complaining more and more they feel unsafe there.

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20 points

Sure “being homeless” isn’t the crime itself but you’re being naive if you don’t think the laws make homelessness illegal. What are they supposed to do? Go find a piece of land no one has claim to and freeze to death?

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-10 points
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And what are we supposed to do? Legalize all drugs and being drunk in public just to avoid having to fine them, and install beds everywhere in the Underground City (and in this post’s case, in emergency stairwells at the Complexe Desjardins) with no regard for their regular use?
Sure, let’s work on proposing more accessible legal alternatives. Just take note that these laws weren’t created to punish the homeless, but to have a clean and safe public space - which have been degrading for some time now.

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8 points
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La Maison du Père costs 1 dollar a night, and they’ll let you in if you explain that you can’t pay the $1.

Some just don’t like shelters. They don’t like the rules, other people, or fear getting their stuff stolen.

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31 points

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” - Anatole France

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-3 points

Here they made being homeless illegal so they can force people into shelters/mental help/rehab/etc.

Much better than letting them shoot up heroin in parks all day.

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6 points

Which orgasms provide shelter?

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2 points

As someone else said, there is La Maison du Père that provide (almost) free shelter.
Otherwise, there are provincial, municipal and private orgasms that help as they can with some services for reinsertion. Like the “L’Itinéraire” magazine.
The SPVM (police department) are also there to help during interventions with people with mental illness, in crisis, or to give references for some government’s services. During great cold they are often outside to distribute goods and coffee. They don’t just give fines.

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3 points

Organisms, and probably that kind of beast that Luke Skywalker cuts open and uses for a sleeping bag to survive the cold.

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2 points

The Tauntaun beast

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1 point

What a fucked up country.

I mean every country has it’s problems but jeysus wept.

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