About 100 people rallied in downtown Montreal on Thursday to protest planned cuts to federal funding of homeless support programs.

Advocates against homelessness, joined by federal candidates, gathered in front of the Guy-Favreau federal government building on René-Lévesque Blvd. for the protest.

They are opposed to the Conservative government's decision not to renew the $269.6 million Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS), set to expire in 2009.

The program is necessary to support organizations that help the homeless, said Pierre Gaudreau, who coordinates RAPSIM, a housing advocacy group.

"It helps more than 80 [people] working with homeless people in terms of their salaries," he said. "It also helps homeless groups to build housing projects. Thousands of units have been built."

Gaudreau said he plans to lobby for the program's reinstatement regardless of the federal election outcome.

Homelessness is a pressing problem in downtown Montreal, said NDP candidate Anne Lagacé Dowson, who is running in the Westmount-Ville-Marie riding where affordable housing is scarce in some areas.

"On the one hand, we have the affluence and security of Westmount, and on the other hand we have people sleeping on grates," she said.

Liberal candidate Marc Garneau said he supports saving the plan. "We take care of our homeless," he said. "Hopefully to reintegrate them into society, but also to show our compassion.

The Bloc Québécois also indicated it would like to see the funding program extended.

Advocates like Gaudreau are asking for a five-year guarantee on the funding stream, which would mean as much as $100 million for housing programs in Montreal.