Frozen Homeless

From the BBC:

“Homeless Montreal man dies in cold just yards from shelter”

The body of a homeless man was found in freezing temperatures just feet away from a shelter which had closed early due to a Covid outbreak. Raphaël André, 51, was pronounced dead early on Sunday after being discovered in a portable toilet next to a centre he had stayed at the day before. The Open Door shelter, normally open 24 hours, had been forced to close by Montreal health officials. Advocates for the homeless say Mr André may have frozen to death. The cause of death has not been confirmed by officials. A friend discovered his body at around 03:00 EST (08:00 GMT) on Sunday. Police have determined Mr André's death was not criminal and have turned the investigation over to the coroner. Mr André was a member of the Innu nation, initially from the Matimekush-Lac John community in northern Quebec, according to CBC News. He was a regular at the Open Door shelter, a drop-in centre in central Montreal that provides services to unhoused people, staff told Canadian media. He had stopped by for a meal and a shower on Saturday night and had been seen that day building snowmen nearby. Montreal temperatures dropped below freezing on Saturday evening into Sunday morning.

Open Door executive director Mélodie Racine told CBC that the province's health agency had forced the shelter to close its doors at 21:30 local time on Sunday following a Covid-19 outbreak. "He didn't die for one reason," Ms Racine said. "There are a lot of factors in place. But what I know is that if he was not asked to leave, he would have probably stayed inside." Montreal public health officials said in a statement it recommended Open Door be reopened once the outbreak was contained, and Mayor Valérie Plante said the city would work with public agencies to keep the shelter open through the night. The shelter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

^ This is a sad reality. Local State/Provincial and Federal Governments are making restrictions and laws and not always thinking about how those actions will directly impact people’s lives. By closing the Open Door Shelter and not having another shelter available close-by the homeless (like Raphaël André) were not helped. So the officials that closed the shelter because of Covid helped Raphaël André die from the freezing cold. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55723811