Lasting and adapted solutions

2022-2023 was the first full year of operation for the Old Brewery Mission’s Homelessness Prevention Department. Still in its infancy, our prevention team has made great strides. We are developing our expertise in this area in order to act both at the structural level, by supporting prevention through the work of the Québec Homelessness Prevention Policy Collaborative (Q-HPPC), and at the individual level, through our applied prevention programs. All our actions have a common goal: helping people in precarious situations avoid homelessness.

During the year, our Homelessness Prevention Department became the main partner of the referral service of the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) for the Passerelle program. Launched as a pilot project in 2021, Passerelle is a prevention program that provides people at imminent risk of homelessness with psychosocial support and help in searching for accommodations until they move into a new home or are referred to another appropriate resource. Over the course of the year, 37 people were referred to the Prevention Department under this initiative.

Emergency services, whether outreach or housing services, meet the basic needs of many people in precarious or homeless situations. These services remain essential to Montreal's homelessness ecosystem.

As Montreal’s homeless population grows and changes, we need to find innovative solutions that are long-term and adapted to the realities of individuals to help more people get off the street. This means broadening our range of housing options. We are doing so through new community housing projects and by enlisting the help of private landlords.

During the year, we opened the doors to our latest housing project for women, Voisines de Lartigue. Ideally located just a few steps from our Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion, the building includes 12 studio apartments that can accommodate women living in precarity.

The first residents moved in on August 1, 2022, and the facility was officially inaugurated on February 10, 2023 at a press conference attended by government representatives. The event generated extensive media coverage for the project and drew attention to our long-term solutions to homelessness.

The Tenaquip Foundation is an indispensable ally of the Old Brewery Mission that has supported our cause for years. Thanks to their generosity, Tenaquip Place, our community housing project in Lachine, will open in summer 2024.