One year in, signs of promise and progress at London’s ‘House of Hope’

Article content

A few months after getting her own apartment, Georgia ended up back in jail.

It wasn’t easy changing the patterns from 13 years on the street.

“It’s still hard,” says Georgia, who didn’t want her last name used.

When she got out of jail this past winter, the apartment was still hers.

That alone makes what goes on at 362 Dundas St. unusual in a city where tenants are hard pressed to find any place to live, never mind after going to jail.

Article content

The building, called by its residents House of Hope and operated by London Cares, has finished its first year as a highly supportive and highly affordable apartment created under the city’s new system for homelessness.

Statistics from the first year suggest that highly supportive housing changes the lives of even the most troubled people living on London’s streets and make the streets themselves safer for everyone.

“It’s really quite remarkable,” Season Bieronski, manager of housing services for London Cares, says. “What we’ve seen is people, within three to six months, gain so much stability.”

The experience proves that immediate housing with supports is a key to ending homelessness, she says.

“You don’t need to do a staged approach. There shouldn’t be stepping stones into readiness for housing. It is housing now.”

The first year brought 56 tenants to the building, with 90 per cent coming straight from the streets or encampments and 10 per cent from long-term hospital stays, Bieronski says.

“A number of individuals in this program were highly visible in the community, because they were street level, experiencing mental health crisis, experiencing physical health crisis on the sidewalk and on the corner and in a park,” she says.

Article content

Article content

Now, like everyone else, they can deal with problems in the safety of their own home, but with round-the-clock support and connections to health care.

Georgia, 52, says she ended up homeless and losing custody of her five children 13 years ago.

“I had a four-bedroom townhouse, fully furnished. It was too depressing. I left everything behind,” she says.

She turned to crystal meth to cope.

“At first it was fun. I had nothing to worry about. But I missed my kids so I just kept getting higher and higher. I didn’t want to be, like, sober.”

Georgie slept in doorways, crashed on couches, and about twice a year, she figures, spent time in jail for shoplifting to pay for drugs.

“I thought I’d get my kids back and into a normal life. I just thought I’d be able to do it. I don’t know how.”

Sometimes, she tried to get onto housing lists, but never got a call back, she says.

Getting housing and help became harder for many Londoners during and after the pandemic. The number of homeless Londoners has jumped as rents soared and services remained underfunded.

An estimated 600 homeless people are considered high acuity with complex medical, addiction and mental health issues that make it difficult to find shelter and homes.

Article content

That problem prompted a network of organizations, companies and city hall to develop London’s whole-of-community response to homelessness marrying shelter, housing and health care.

The new system is supposed to be built on up to 15 24-hour shelter and service hubs and up to 600 highly supported housing units, though both foundations have been slow to construct.

The London Cares highly supported apartment on Dundas opened with 25 units in October 2023, and 24 more in May 2024. There’s a mix of bachelor, studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

London Health Sciences Centre is funding the two-year pilot project. Medical help is provided as well from London InterCommunity Health Centre and Ontario Health At Home.

The program is being evaluated and London Cares is working with Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre and London police to assess how people were doing six months before moving in and six months after, Bieronski says.

But other statistics already point to success. Of the 56 tenants, only four have experienced overdoses since moving in, and only a few each, she says.

Article content

“That is shockingly low. We were certainly prepared for individuals to be continuing to experience the same level of overdose pattern that they experienced at street level.

“We are now seeing a significant reduction in individual substance use,” Bieronski adds.

As well, many tenants have moved away from injecting drugs to smoking them, a much less harmful practice, she says.

Other marks of success: Five women who were street level sex workers no longer do that to survive. Sixty-five per cent of the tenants have reconnected with family.

Many tenants knew each other on the street and have brought that same sense of community to the building, Bieronski says: “We have residents that will take the time to clean our front porch, clean up the steps of any garbage. They’ve done some gardening in the spring and the fall, just wanting to have the dignity and pride of where they live.”

Three tenants died during the first year.

“We knew that they would likely be approaching palliative (care) once being housed, and we wanted to ensure that they had a place to die with dignity,” Bieronski says.

Article content

A handful of the tenants in the past year have moved to different housing and some are ready now to live in more moderately supported housing, she adds.

Living in their own home takes different skills and a different way of thinking from living on the streets, Bieronski says.

“Suddenly they have neighbours, that they need to work alongside. They need to navigate how to attend appointments and how to get from point A to point B. They need care and love, and that’s what we’re here to do.”

The love and care turns into advocacy outside the building. The connection with LHSC has made it easier for staff to get access to hospital care more quickly, Bieronski says.

If a tenant faces criminal charges and jail looms, London Cares works with justice officials to see if diversion back to a supportive home apartment, or a shorter stay in custody, is possible.

Tenants and support staff meet monthly to discuss any issues or concerns they have, and a few rules have changed. At first, no overnight visitors were allowed, but now they are, with certain conditions.

She misses having her friends around her all the time, as she did while homeless, Georgia says.

Article content

“I was glad that there were people here that I knew that were on the street, too. But I just wanted to be with my friends, to be in the same unit with me. It’s still hard.”

Buying groceries every month remains an annoying part of a home, but it does connect her with friends outside, Georgia adds.

“I cook for everybody and take it outside to them,” she says with a smile.

She’s cut back on her substance abuse, and will soon be getting new teeth to replace the ones she lost to crystal meth, Georgia says.

Her ankles damaged and arthritis growing, she moves slowly into an interview room using a walker. She’s taking her own time rebuilding her life, like the other tenants.

She won’t contact all her children, not yet, Georgia says.

“Because I’m scared to. It’s been so long.”

rrichmond@postmedia.com

Article content