The Old Brewery Mission opens new living spaces on its 135th anniversary

The Old Brewery Mission turns 135 this fall and it is celebrating the milestone by inaugurating new living spaces at its men’s shelter, completing the phase-out of dormitories at all its facilities. The shift to a more modern approach fulfills the Old Brewery Mission’s vision of long-term solutions to break the cycle of homelessness. However, this anniversary is a reminder of the need to continue developing services for vulnerable populations, as homelessness is as prevalent as ever and indeed increasing.

No more dorms

With the renovation of all five floors of the Webster Pavilion, the 185-capacity emergency shelter for men, the last dormitories have disappeared from the Old Brewery Mission’s shelters. This transformation was made possible by a generous $1 million donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After bidding farewell to dormitories at the Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion in December 2023, which was a big step forward for its women’s services, the Mission has now eliminated all dorms at all its shelters.

James Hugues, President and CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, says it’s good news for the residents of the Webster Pavilion and the homelessness community in general: “With this overhaul of our shelters, we are taking the lead in the fight against homelessness once again by affording greater dignity to our transitional service residents. We are paving the way for more modern homelessness services suited to current realities.”

Emergency shelters are often the first contact people experiencing homelessness have with helping services, before moving on to supportive housing. “This is usually a traumatic experience, especially for people going through it for the first time,” says Émilie Fortier, Vice-President, Services of the Old Brewery Mission. “From a clinical point of view, it’s clear that greater comfort and privacy, and ultimately well-being, make residents feel safe and let them focus on their reaffiliation, enabling faster rehousing.”

“Cities are on the front lines of the alarming rise in homelessness, which makes the role of community organizations more crucial than ever,” says Robert Beaudry, city councillor for Saint-Jacques district and the member of Montreal's executive committee responsible for urban planning, the OCPM and homelessness. “Montreal can rely on the Old Brewery Mission—a pillar of our community for 135 years—to continually reinvent itself and provide services that meet today's needs.”

Each stage of the homelessness journey is critical to long-term reaffiliation, which is why it is so important to evolve emergency services. In the spirit of community and support for the most vulnerable, the Old Brewery Mission invites the public to follow its 135th anniversary celebrations this fall.

From its beginnings as a soup kitchen in 1889 and then a shelter for homeless men in the 1920s, the Old Brewery Mission has been a fixture on the Montreal landscape, always there to help people in need. Since the late 1990s, it has grown at a rapid pace and added new services—the women’s service, the rehousing service, the prevention service—to address the many faces of homelessness in Montreal and break the cycle of homelessness with long-term solutions. Over more than a century, the Old Brewery Mission has never stopped reinventing itself.