Finding stability, feeling safe, thinking about your future, regaining confidence: having a roof over your head gives life back to homeless people. The newspaper met three formerly homeless people who are getting their lives back together thanks to their housing.
A 54-year-old man who has experienced chronic homelessness is managing to get back on track and pay off his student debt through access to affordable rent.
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“If you live on the minimum wage and overnight you fall into unemployment, with the cost of rent, you almost automatically find yourself on the street,” explains Franck Lambert, 54.
Almost all his life, Frank Lambert has alternated between having a job, losing it, unemployment insurance and social assistance.
“I have always lived with low income, difficulty paying for my accommodation and my food. It was life experiences that helped me find resources to help me,” he says.
Fall into homelessness
His life on the streets began when he lost the apartment he had lived in for seven years due to his drinking problems. Subsequently, he explains that he had periods of homelessness of several months while he found apartments.
“In 2020, I had difficulty paying my rent and I knew my landlord wanted to go to the administrative housing tribunal. So the 1er June, I lost my apartment, in the midst of a pandemic”, he says.
Resourceful, he also found a job in a private company which put him in contact with L’Accueil Bonneau.
Since then, he has rented a room at the Maison Eugénie-Bernier, managed by L’Accueil Bonneau. The building includes affordable indefinite-term transitional housing with support for people aged 18 and over who are chronically homeless.
find stability
For him, obtaining his affordable housing with the organization allowed him to get back on track, pay his bills and settle his debts, while being able to organize himself.
“Now my accounts are up to date, my taxes are up to date. I am more comfortable managing my affairs. And I even got a job as a cleaner at the Jewish Hospital in Montreal,” he explains.
He now hopes to be able to repay his student debts that he has been carrying since the end of his CEGEP in 1995, but also to recover his driver’s license.
“Those are pretty much my plans for the medium to long term,” he says proudly.
“We get along, I would like that too with a wife and children, with a nice little house, but for that, I’m going to have to work hard,” he adds, laughing.
New housing for L’Accueil Bonneau
In a few months, the Montreal organization will inaugurate a new building comprising 114 studios with the Société d’Habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), which will provide a low-cost roof to hundreds of people.
“With this new house, we are aiming for a social mix, where there will be LGBTQ men and women of all ages, who better represent society,” explains Fiona Crossling, director of L’Accueil Bonneau. She specifies that for the moment the three existing houses only house men.
With the explosion of rental prices in the metropolis, more and more people find themselves at risk of finding themselves in a situation of homelessness.
“Often, it is because of the housing crisis that people find themselves in a situation of homelessness. We often have prejudices against people who are homeless, but it is Mr. and Mrs. Everybody now who risks losing their housing, ”insists Fiona Crossling.
To prevent or to help get out of the street, the Montreal organization, which works mainly in Old Montreal, offers 132 affordable housing units, in three different houses: Maison Claire-Ménard, Maison Eugénie-Bernier and the Joseph-Vincent House. They also receive support there.
“People need housing, but also support. Most of the people we welcome need psychosocial support to get back on track. It allows people to stabilize at their own pace,” explains Ms.me Crossline.
In 2022 alone, this lifted 418 people out of homelessness, says Ms.me Crossing.