About
The Old Brewery Mission is Montreal’s largest homelessness organization.
The Old Brewery Mission works with people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Montreal, providing concrete support for their sustainable reaffiliation and housing stability. We are an important player in Montreal’s social ecosystem, contributing daily to improving urban health in the city through prevention programs, emergency services with psychosocial support and rehousing initiatives.
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Urban health
As defined by the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, which is responsible for Montreal’s homeless file, “the urban health approach seeks to encourage the adaptation of health and social services, environments and policies to better meet the needs of the population living in an urban environment. The ultimate objective of this approach is to improve the population’s health by reducing social and health inequalities and to make the city more resilient when taking on adversity and social-sanitary threats.”
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Sustainable reaffiliation
Sustainable reaffiliation is a direct response to disaffiliation. Disaffiliation, the ultimate cause of homelessness, is defined as “the gradual retreat caused by an accumulation of events in a person’s life journey that leads them to break ties with the people and resources of their entourage.” We want to help disaffiliated people reconnect in all areas of their lives: family, friends, health, employability and so on.
Our mission
Our mission is to end the cycle of homelessness. To do so, the Old Brewery Mission addresses the challenges of social precariousness through an intervention model focused on urban health and sustainable reaffiliation.
Our vision
Every person experiencing or at risk of homelessness must be able to live with dignity in a secure, permanent home.
Our five guiding principles
Universal welcome
Any adult (man, woman, trans or non-binary) is welcome at the Old Brewery Mission. Our services meet the needs of any individual at whatever stage they find themselves in the homelessness cycle. We welcome the complete spectrum of homelessness-related challenges, as complex as they are, with a high threshold of tolerance and accessibility for mental health and substance abuse-related behaviours.
24-7-365
We offer accompaniment and emergency services 24-7-365. Homelessness never takes a holiday, so our services are available 365 days per year. Our emergency accommodations are accessible at any time, day and night. Intervention workers are available to ensure psychosocial guidance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in several of our facilities.
Continuous accompaniment
We offer an integrated continuum of services, from the street to rehousing and reaffiliation. The core of our approach is individual psychosocial accompaniment by our intervention workers who are specially trained to deal with homelessness. From the moment they arrive at our services, people experiencing homelessness are accompanied in their progress to find a suitable, adapted home. We remain in regular contact with our residents and clients and follow up on each step of their journey toward residential stability, and we ensure they remain housed.
Research and innovation
We have a dedicated research team, and we invest in their work to better understand the phenomenon of homelessness and act earlier on in its progress. We apply best practices for each of our interventions and we set up innovative programs and projects in every one of our fields of activity. We keep ahead of the curve on what’s being done best elsewhere in order to always evolve our services in the best interests of the people we serve.
Leadership and collective effort
We believe teamwork is essential to tackle the issue of homelessness in a sustainable way. We work together with governments, other players in the field and the community to present a united front. We are leaders in the field of homelessness in Montreal, and we share our know-how and expertise with our partners.
Our values
Want to learn more?
Read about more than 135 years of Old Brewery Mission history.