The first results of Quebec's April 2025 homelessness count, published by Le Devoir, put the number of visibly homeless people at 12,077 – a rise of over 20 per cent in three years. The data confirm that what was once a marginal phenomenon in Montreal alone has spread to smaller cities and unexpected neighbourhoods, often remaining hidden from official statistics. The authors, a cross-party group of signatories, warn that silence has become complicity. In Uppsala, a parallel crisis unfolds: around 100 people face acute homelessness, with roughly 1,000 more in precarious housing. A local contributor to Uppsala Nya Tidning, speaking from personal experience, describes how quickly life can unravel when basic security vanishes, and insists that the city must not look away.

Across the Middle East, a strikingly different but equally potent occupation of public space is under way. Writing in Hamshahri Online, former MP Hojjatoleslam Hossein Jalali notes that spontaneous nightly gatherings in Tehran, Qom and other Iranian cities have now reached their eightieth consecutive evening. These are not state-organised rallies: they emerged without official direction or propaganda and are self-managed. Jalali describes them as a nascent phenomenon unprecedented in Islamic history – a movement that began without command and continues without coercion, driven by popular will alone. The gatherings, he argues, are gradually becoming part of participants' lifestyle, acquiring functions that transcend simple protest.

Viewed from Europe and North America, the two phenomena appear unrelated: one driven by economic failure and social policy gaps, the other by geopolitical tension and popular expression. Yet both are manifestations of a broader trend: the street as a site of last resort. In Quebec and Sweden, homelessness forces people into public view because private shelter has failed; in Iran, citizens take to the squares by choice, creating a new form of collective identity. Analysts in London note that both dynamics place immense strain on urban governance – cities must either accommodate these presences or risk confrontation. The coming months will test whether authorities can respond with more than neglect or repression, or whether the street will remain the only stage for the disenfranchised and the determined alike.