From camp to shelter: Shelter says one person's journey shows what's possible

It's been a few weeks since Nicholas Singcaster heard from Conrad Tremblay, a 62-year-old homeless man who was staying at a camp on a small patch of grass between a railroad and a bike path.

They missed each other several times. Meanwhile, Singcaster is gearing up for the coming winter with a mobile clinic he runs for the Old Brewery Mission, one of Montreal's largest homeless shelters.

As an outreach worker at the shelter, Singcaster met Tremblay last summer, a few months after the clinic opened. It was created in response to a spike in the city's homeless population, which by some estimates has doubled during the pandemic. Lack of space in shelters has forced many people to sleep on the streets or in camps like Tremblay.

“We decided to reach out to people instead of waiting for them to come to us,” Singcaster said.

He became attached to the chatty man with the organized tent, which he regularly visited to check on.

Tremblay spent three winters outside and thought of all the ways to make it possible. Its installation includes a barbecue, a clothesline, an insulated tarp, a drainage ditch; the carefully arranged items sat atop a bookshelf next to her mattress propped up by milk cartons.

She regularly cooked meals for her camp neighbors, homeless friends, and let one of her friends, Genevieve, sleep in her tent when CBC visited her last September. Every night to pay for food and supplies, he rode his bike and found aluminum cans in people's trash.

Singcaster helped Tremblay with other tasks: filing documents and taxes. Types of things that take second place to survival; types of items needed to re-enter housing. Next on Singcaster's list for Tremblay: finding him a new home.

“You're not going to spend another winter here,” he told a skeptical Tremblay.

So when the first big snow fell in November, he took a cul-de-sac to the overpass near the camp to see how his friend was doing. When he walked, the roof caved in.

Singcaster came running, worried Tremblay was buried in the snow, but a neighbor said Tremblay was taken by ambulance after suffering a heart attack. Singcaster called several hospitals and found him in a Jewish general and in a bad way.

In addition to his heart problems, Tremblay developed a serious foot infection from falling on rusted metal. He underwent surgery on his leg and then on his heart to correct the arrhythmia. He was in the hospital for three months.

There is no going back

He told Singcaster he didn't want to go back to the camp. “That's it,” he said. “Find me a seat, I'm ready.”

Singcaster went to work. He enrolled Tremblay in the Mission's housing program, which housed two prospective units overseen by homeowners willing to participate. As it turns out, Tremblay was a good candidate for rent subsidies because most of his affairs were in order.

Tremblay had one major request, and that was to have a closed bedroom in the apartment. “I have too much stuff,” he said. In fact, Tremblay is just getting started. He asked Singcaster to get rid of everything in the camp and said he didn't want to live nearby. He hoped for a place in Rosemont, but was pleased when a small basement suite opened in Montreal Nord.

As soon as he entered, he said, “I will.” He moved in March. Its owners are a couple with two children who live on the upper floors of a small house with a courtyard in a quiet street.

“I like this place. I finally have a place to call home,” she said as she walked up the stairs to her porch.

Inside, space is sparse, but homey – and perfect. Two comfortable rocking chairs, one of them reclining, sit in front of a large television that belonged to Tremblay's mother, who recently passed away. A framed picture of him rests on a shelf above one of her beds.

The bathroom was recently renovated and Tremblay says he can shower every day.

“If it rains, I will be a shelter, in the cold, there is a roof,” he said, standing in the kitchen. “I have a fridge where I store all my food. I didn't have such things there.''

The shelter cites Tremblay as a success story made possible by the clinic, which is partially funded by telecommunications giant Telus, and says it has had 2,691 interactions since it began. But from Tremblay's perspective, it was all Singcaster.

“He's the best outreach worker. He worked hard for me, and I appreciate him very much,” he said.

Singcaster admits it's rare for Tremblay to go straight from living outside to sheltering.

Montreal's encampments are on the rise, so the city's efforts to crack them down, forcing people into dangerous conditions, comes amid a lack of affordable housing, advocates say.

The Old Brewery Mission Housing Program was able to provide a rent subsidy that covered about 60 percent of Tremblay's rent. He earns about $1,100 a month on welfare and pays about $300 in rent, Singcaster said.

A provincial survey on homelessness, conducted in 2022 and released in the fall, estimated that at least 4,690 people are homeless in Montreal, and about 1,000 of them spend their nights in public spaces.

For years, advocates have decried the lack of public funding for homeless services and housing.