The file on the conference room table at the Droit Devant legal clinic is about six inches thick, brimming with hundreds of sheets of paper. They are all fines, dating back over a decade, and represent a $110,000 [$81,000 USD] worth of legal woes for one homeless man.

There's no way those fines will ever be paid to the Montreal municipal court. The man who owes them has left the province, and there is no way of knowing if or when he'll be back in town, says Isabelle Raffestin, the coordinator of the Droit Devant, a legal services organization specializing in helping the homeless navigate the judicial system.