Death of unhoused migrant in Montreal was avoidable, community workers say

MONTRÉAL — A Montreal community worker says she tried to help a 42-year-old undocumented migrant weeks before he died on the street in the Park Extension neighbourhood.

Amina Saman works with a handful of community organizations that provide support and services for unhoused people living in the area.

She says she knew Manjeet Singh and had offered to help him renew his refugee status and work permit and find suitable housing in early January.

He was found unresponsive on the street shortly after and was declared dead in hospital on Jan. 16.

Saman says she was shocked when she learned of his death through colleagues.

“I said, how come? Last week I saw him,” she said. “I was speechless. I don’t know what to say. I could have saved this guy.”

Saman is speaking out about Singh’s passing as members of the community prepare to host a vigil for him on Tuesday night. The event is being held a week after the Quebec coroner’s office announced a new inquest into the rise in deaths of unhoused people in Montreal.

Singh was cremated in Montreal last week, four months after his death, and Saman is still working to send his ashes back to India.

Singh’s papers show he came to Canada from India in 2018 as a refugee claimant, but Saman says he struggled to find work. She said he remained undocumented after his brown card and work permit expired in 2022.

She has been in touch with Singh’s family, including his wife and two children, who he hoped would eventually join him in Canada. Saman says the family was devastated and struggled to locate his body and bring it home for burial due to language barriers and financial constraints.

She adds the family wants answers.

While the inquest by Stéphanie Gamache will focus on the deaths of five people, the coroner’s office said she can expand the probe to consider other cases, with statistics showing a sharp increase in the number of deaths in recent years across the province.

While there were only 19 recorded deaths of unhoused people in 2020 across Quebec, the coroner’s office says this number increased to 21 in 2021, 38 in 2022, 88 in 2023 and 123 in 2024.

The coroner’s office said it did not yet have complete data available for 2025.

Amy Darwish, a coordinator at a housing community group in the neighbourhood, said Singh had been evicted from a cramped housing unit he shared with several others after an argument with a roommate. He ended up outside in the cold.

Darwish says there are no emergency shelters or warming centres in the neighbourhood, which could have saved Singh’s life.

“This was a completely preventable and avoidable death. He didn’t need to die this way. And I think what it highlights is that we really need measures to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she said.

Darwish said she was made aware of the deaths of three other unhoused people in the neighbourhood over the winter.

Park Extension was once known as Montreal’s most affordable and diverse neighbourhood. But like everywhere in the city, rent prices have skyrocketed — especially after the arrival of a new university campus in the area in 2019, says Darwish.

“Landlords wanted to benefit from this, and rents have spiralled out of control,” she says. “It is very difficult to find housing that’s affordable … it creates a context where people feel like they have no choice but to accept conditions that are often highly precarious and highly exploitative.”

Those organizing the vigil, including Darwish, are calling for better resources for the unhoused in the neighbourhood. They also want the government to adopt a program to provide legal status to undocumented migrants like Singh.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2026.

Erika Morris, The Canadian Press