CN Rail pledges $100 million to fight homelessness across its North American network

MONTREAL – Canadian National Railway says homelessness is a growing problem along its North American rail network and has pledged $100 million over ten years to fund community groups and shelters that offer services to the unhoused.

Non-profits in Canada and the United States, including groups running research projects on homelessness, will be able to apply online for funding, Olivier Chouc, CN senior vice-president and chief legal officer, said in an interview Tuesday.

He said CN officials are increasingly witnessing homelessness across the railway system. ”We have large areas, vacant land, and they tend to be attractive to homeless people and all these encampments,” Chouc said. 

For Montreal, where CN is headquartered, the company is donating $1 million to four organizations that help the unhoused: Le Chaînon womens shelter; Dans la rue, which works with youth experiencing homelessness; Mission Old Brewery, one of the largest shelter networks in Montreal; and Projets Autochtones du Québec, which offers services to Indigenous people. Each will receive $250,000.

The company is scheduled to make the announcement on Wednesday morning at the downtown location of the Mission Old Brewery.

In a news release, CN said it chose the four groups in Montreal as a way to ”support programs serving individuals and families, including youth, women, First Nations and Métis people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.”

Organizations located across CN’s 30,000-kilometres of track in Canada and the U.S. are eligible to apply for the funding starting in July and until September.

The money is being welcomed by Réseau solidarité itinérance du Québec, a network representing more than 260 homelessness organizations in the province. Spokesperson Eric Edström said he appreciates that CN has chosen to directly fund established shelters and groups. 

”We’re letting the shelters do their job. It’s not a company trying to create new projects, or giving tents,” Edström said.

Chouc said CN recognizes the scale of the issue and the limits of corporate money.

“We know it is a huge problem, and we know it takes more than our investment to solve it,” he said. “But I would say: if you don’t start somewhere, you’ll never (solve it), and where we start is actually pretty meaningful.”

Chouc said CN has already worked with national organizations, such as the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, to better understand the root causes that lead people to end up on the street.

Last month, the Quebec government released numbers showing that homelessness has increased across the province. Conducted on April 15, 2025, the survey counted more than 12,000 people who were visibly homeless, representing an increase of about 20 per cent from the last count in October 2022.

The Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Laurentians, Côte-Nord, Laval, and Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean regions all recorded increases of over 50 per cent. Those regions have also seen increases in the percentages of unhoused people who spend the night outside instead of in a shelter or hospital. 

Montreal had by far the largest number of visibly unhoused people in Quebec, with 5,036, as well as the highest proportion of unhoused people per 100,000 residents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2026.