On November 12, 2025, La Presse published an interview that struck a deep chord with me — not because it was emotional, but because it was clear, pragmatic, and grounded in reality.

The discussion around homelessness too often stalls between good intentions and institutional friction. What stood out in this interview was the willingness to say the quiet part out loud:

“Il faut que je me donne les moyens d’agir.”

“La responsabilité de l’itinérance doit être beaucoup plus partagée.”

“Si je veux acheter 1 000 sacs de couchage, je ne peux pas… il faut simplifier les gestes rapides.”

These are not ideological statements.
They are operational truths.

Homelessness is not a mystery problem.
It is a communication and coordination problem.

 

What makes me an expert?

I’m not an expert.

I’m a natural problem solver — and, at one point in my life, a very lucky one.

In 2010, after living in my car, I experienced briefly homelessness myself. What allowed me to get back on my feet wasn’t brilliance or planning — it was a combination of persistence, timing, and access to a government-authorized welfare program, despite missing tax years at the time.

It was, quite literally, luck.

Without that break, I don’t know if I would have had the chance to put the pieces of my life back together. That experience permanently shaped how I see life — and how I understand the problems we face, both individually and as a society.

 

So why Montréal — and why make this an example?

When I began putting my own life back together, I paid close attention to how people recovered from major setbacks. True to my entrepreneurial instinct, I studied business owners in particular.

Every single person I looked at shared a common pattern.

They didn’t wait for perfect conditions. They took what already existed — flawed, incomplete, sometimes unfair systems — and did what others were not willing to do. From the outset, they framed the challenge differently and approached their problems in a fresh way.

• They turned constraints into leverage
• Leverage into direction
• Direction into a burning desire

Seeing this pattern again and again didn’t just give me hope — it rewired how I understand problems.

What if we collectively chose to see this challenge differently — not as an immovable burden, but as a large opportunity: a chance to reorganize what already exists and build something that hasn’t been done before.

If homelessness remains framed solely as a societal burden, we will never fully mobilize the private sector. And without the private sector, we cannot rally as a society around a shared objective — the issue remains trapped in political cycles.

But if we approach it from the ground up, with transparency, speed, and measurable execution — and if we intentionally design it as a model worth studying — we can mobilize far more than public institutions alone.

Montréal already has a je ne sais quoi that resonates globally.
We should leverage it — not symbolically, but structurally.

That is why this issue has been close to my heart for over 15 years — not as an abstract cause, but as a lived, recurring failure of systems that are too slow, too fragmented, and too risk-averse to address a societal problem affecting all of us.

 

A Practical Pilot:

Montréal Near-Zero Homelessness

If we truly want progress, we need to stop asking “Who’s responsible?” and start asking “What would work — quickly, measurably, and transparently?”

What follows is a concise, execution-focused pilot model designed to open a serious, practical conversation with the decision-makers and system-shapers already in place today.

 

1 / Start with a clear mission

Treat homelessness as solvable, not perpetual.

Design a pilot whose sole purpose is to prove near-zero is possible.

 

2 / A small, agile delegation (5 people)

Already active in the ecosystem:

• Mayor’s Office representative
• Journalist (for transparency and accountability)
• Legal expert
• Communications / marketing lead
• Logistics specialist

Small teams move faster. Speed matters.

 

3 / Visibility and credibility

A privately funded, 30-day research mission — with real-time, publicly accessible cost transparency — to study working models in:

• Japan
• Switzerland
• Iceland
• Luxembourg
• Monaco

This is not about copying — it’s about understanding what removes friction in different contexts and societies, and using those insights to identify what is applicable within our own.

 

4 / What near-zero actually requires

A centralized, rapid-action hub coordinating three groups:

• Group 1: Housing, education, skills training, language, digital literacy
• Group 2: Health services and addiction specialists
• Group 3: Identification, legal, fiscal, and government services

One location.
One place equipped to resolve problems in real time.

 

5 / Deliverable

A public, practical report to the Mayor outlining a clear roadmap for Montréal to achieve near-zero homelessness — including timelines, costs, and measurable outcomes.

 

Final step

Build a scalable framework with a test zone in Montréal.

Measure it. Share it. Improve it. Build momentum.
Make this a shared societal challenge — and an international window into how this is possible.

• Compassion without execution fails the people it intends to help.
• Execution without compassion fails to last.
  

We need both — designed together.

— Joe