MONTREAL - Some experts had the wild idea that it could help heal homeless people not by providing psychotherapy of medications, but by giving that which they really need: a roof.
Equipped with an $18.4 million grant, the Chez Soi team went to work to help people like Rick, who has been plagued by a series of issues that led him to live on the streets.
"I had a lot of problems and I made a lot of bad decisions and mistakes," said Rick. "I've been suffering basically from depression for countless years and I didn't think it was an issue at the time."
Rick found himself listless and unmotivated, "lying in bed for 16, 18 hours a day with no real drive or incentive."
Dark ideas of ending his life returned frequently. "The thoughts of suicide kept coming in and they just wouldn't leave."
But when a social worker told him that he might be able to get a subsidized, furnished apartment, he jumped at the chance and his life has since turned around.
One medic involved with the project admits that the home-first approach is unconventional.
"There are a few aspects that make it different from what has normally been done for homeless people," said Dr. Eric Latimer of Chez Soi. "We immediately offer a choice of subsidized apartments to people who enter the program."
Rick says that he could have lived a better life had he received such attention earlier.
"I probably wouldn't have ended up making all those foolish mistakes and ended up living on the street," he said.
