‘Your life is not a joke’: Old Brewery Mission opens new pavilion to house seniors facing homelessness

From full kitchens to a community garden, the Old Brewery Mission has officially opened a new rehousing facility in Montreal’s Saint-Michel for seniors at risk of homelessness.

“Cannot be happier,” said resident Nunzia Gangi, who has been at the facility for three months after being in a shelter. “They gave everything a person needs. There’s a bed. There’s a couch. There’s a table. Appliances. Everything. Comfort.”

The Mirella and Lino Saputo Pavilion is set to house 27 people aged 50 or older — fully adapted for people with reduced mobility — to help alleviate the housing crisis. Around 44 per cent of those experiencing homelessness in Montreal are in that age bracket.

“It’s super important for elders to have a place to find stability and comfort,” said Clara Seidenberg, the coordinator for housing support services at the Old Brewery Mission. “People who are experiencing homelessness do age or physically age faster because of how hard it is to be without a stable housing situation.”

The facility has furnished apartments with a full kitchen, a private bathroom, and even a balcony.

“It’s your bed, your mattress, your blanket, your bed sheets, your pillow,” said Gangi. “It’s yours. And it’s your room, your space. You cannot compare that to any shelter because most times you’re sharing. This is yours.”

“I lock the door behind me, no one can touch me. Understand? When you’re in a shelter, I’ll say once again, most times you’re sharing a room and you’re not exactly feeling secure about leaving your stuff behind because you don’t know who your roommate is or you don’t have the comfort of locking your door. So if it’s not your roommate, someone else could see what you have, they could probably go in and take your stuff.”

Tenants must pay 25 per cent of their income for rent after being selected through a rigorous applicant process.

“I have had some people telling me, ‘I can finally see my family again,'” said Seidenberg. “’I can finally see my friends again because I’m proud of the place that I’m going to be living in.’ And to me, some of the most important things are people considering their apartments as homes and not houses. They’re not considering it as transitional. They know it’s a forever home.”

“One of the women who just moved here a couple of weeks ago told us that she was able to have her son and her granddaughter come here for the very first time and meet her granddaughter, who’s a tiny little baby, and she was not able to do that in the place that she was prior to moving here.”

“I would say this is the goal for here, to be able to enjoy life in a way, to be able to just live life.”

Case workers are present Monday to Friday to help provide additional services, as one of their main goals for residents is to provide comfort and empowerment.

“Some people are going to be experiencing episodic homelessness because of a life event, because of a sickness or something like that, they’ve lost a lot of their autonomy in that process and were trying to give it back to them,” said Seidenberg.

James Hughes, the president and CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, says the overarching goal is to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.

“Living on the street, they age prematurely,” Hughes said. “Then it takes them much more effort to find housing and they are more likely to remain homeless.”

The pavilion will be used to try and reduce the housing crisis and reduce homelessness in Montreal, and includes organized activities and a supportive housing team to promote housing stability.

“People are desperate for housing, let’s be honest about it,” said Seidenberg. “Everyone is desperate for housing, whether it’s someone who’s making $50,000 a year or someone making $15,000 a year, everyone is desperate for housing. It’s hard for someone with $50,000 a year to find something, so it’s hard to imagine for someone who makes $15,000. It’s pretty much impossible to find housing with this amount of money, even to have roommates nowadays.”

The pavilion was made possible through a donation from the Mirella and Lino Saputo Foundation.

“We are proud to continue contributing to the well-being of vulnerable seniors, in collaboration with the Old Brewery Mission,” said Mirella Saputo, president of the Mirella and Lino Saputo Foundation.

“The creation of a facility of this scale in a neighbourhood close to us is particularly significant,” she added. “By joining our efforts, we can transform our community and offer these people a stable home and adapted services, allowing them to regain their dignity and security.”

Gangi says life experiences first led him to a shelter. “When things just went just bad, it took me a long time to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘OK, kid, you could do this.'”

He says the feeling of independence and something as simple as eating when you want is unlike anything else, encouraging those who feel stuck to reach out for help.

“You can if you really, really want to. You can. Just please give yourself a chance. Give yourself a chance. You could do it. You really can. I did it.

“Your life is not a joke.”