Montreal’s first wet shelter for homeless unveiled at Old Brewery Mission
Posted June 22, 2022 9:55 am.
Last Updated June 22, 2022 7:47 pm.
Montreal’s first wet shelter is being unveiled Wednesday morning at the Old Brewery Mission downtown, dedicated to supervised alcohol consumption for the homeless.
“For people who are homeless, who are binge drinkers, this is finally an answer to the challenge that they’re facing,” said James Hughes, President and CEO of Old Brewery Mission.
The local health authority, the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, partnered with the Old Brewery Mission, which offers shelter, services and support to those facing homelessness.
The goal of the program is to help control the consumption of alcohol by limiting people to one drink an hour. They also hope it will reduce the effects of their dependence.
“It was a missing link for people who have like drug addiction or alcohol problems, because some of the people who are experiencing homelessness, normal traditional services, whether they be therapy or medical approaches, it just doesn’t work for them,” said Élaine Polflit, of the Continuum of vulnerable populations and crisis intervention at the CIUSSS. “A sub population of people who are experiencing homelessness will need to have a managed alcohol program just to get stabilized and then be less anxious not having to look for food, shelter or hide from the police or being intoxicated on the streets.”
#WATCH: “It’s a program that doesn’t have an aim to stop using alcohol,” says Élaine Polflit of the @ciusss_csmtl on the Old Brewery Mission’s newly unveiled wet shelter. She says it’s to help the homeless control their consumption.
READ: https://t.co/CaHP6SqS2e pic.twitter.com/OzKDS4V90l
— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) June 22, 2022
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The project is the first of its kind in the city and welcomed its first users in May. It’s not open to a maximum of 30 men in the Montreal area who are referred and then assessed by a medical team before being admitted voluntarily.
“The men who are going to be part of this program, who are currently in the program, have the chance of really reducing the harm they’re causing to themselves because of the binge drinking that they’re that they’re practicing,” Hughes said. “It’s so dangerous to drink, for instance, ten or 12 or even more beers in an hour and we see people falling down stairs, going to the hospital, being hit by vehicles.”
“It’s going to prevent them having to access health services, emergency services, suffer from whole health problems, cirrhosis or other afflictions linked to alcohol use and it also reduces dramatically mortality that is linked to alcohol abuse,” Polflit added.
Sylvain at the Old Brewery Mission using the new program dedicated to supervising alcohol consumption. (Credit: CityNews/Alyssia Rubertucci)
The participants have a common space and dorms where they can drink safely.
“It’s a dosage that is fixed, that is offered once every hour and if the person skips a dose, there’s no additional dose,” said Polflit. “We don’t want people to be intoxicated, we want people to be comfortable and not have withdrawal symptoms.”
The program has already had some success.
“One individual is doing so well,” said Hughes. “After four weeks in the program, we’re already seeing the color of his skin changing back to a more a more normal color, so it’s going really well. We’re starting to have some of the conversations with these gentlemen that I can’t have when they’re in a state of of massive drunkenness.”
The aim is to help them get off their feet in a few months to eventually find permanent housing.
“We’re really hoping in the years ahead that the service be made available for women as well,” said Hughes.
