Old Brewery Mission launches campaign to raise awareness and prevent homelessness

According to the most recent available Quebec homelessness count, dating from 2022,1 eviction is the leading factor in the loss of housing. In the context of the housing shortage and the opioid crisis, prevention is more urgent than ever.

Since 2021, the Old Brewery Mission’s prevention service has helped almost 500 people avoid homelessness by working upstream. Once a person becomes homeless, the road back to stability becomes immensely more complex, costly and painful—for both the individual and society.

Joint action network

“The Old Brewery Mission's prevention service is based on strategic collaboration with nearly 40 community partners, enabling rapid, targeted intervention for people at risk of homelessness," says Georges Ohana, Director of Homelessness Prevention at Old Brewery Mission. “We use a humane, carefully coordinated approach, supported by programs tailored to people’s diverse circumstances and our supportive housing services, to act upstream, before the situation becomes critical.”

A call for action: Homelessness doesn't start on the streets

Recently, the Old Brewery Mission launched an awareness and fundraising campaign focusing on the importance of preventing homelessness. Designed by the Insubordination agency, the campaign drives home a key fact: homelessness is avoidable, and it doesn't start on the street.

“Too often, we associate homelessness with the streets, but it starts long before that: it springs from loss, break-ups, unseen injustices," says Marie-Pier Therrien, Director of Communications at the Old Brewery Mission. “This campaign sends out a clear call to action: every effort we make before a person ends up on the streets can change a life.”

The campaign uses powerful video and visuals to retrace the events that can lead to losing a home, such as eviction, and shows that by intervening early, it is possible to reduce homelessness. Preventing homelessness helps to preserve the dignity, stability and hope of hundreds of people every year. To watch the video, click here.