Inside the Quebec YMCA offering transitional housing to homeless people after hospital stay

Darin Luckie said it was a combining of drugs, inebriant and the COVID-19 pandemic that led to his lifespan falling asunder, finding himself without a place in Montreal.

“I expected to recover in a couple months. A couple months turned into a year. And a year turned into four,” he said. "Then you’re like, ‘It’s –30 outside and I don’t want to do this no more,'" he said.

A Montreal health agency has now teamed up with the YMCA to launch a three-month transitional housing pilot project that helps people like Luckie — providing a safe, private-room alternative for people experiencing homelessness after a hospital discharge.

People experiencing homelessness struggle to recover from illness or injury when discharged from emergency, said Catherine Roberge, who is the chief of program administration, addiction and homelessness with the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal.

“There’s a big flux of people without an address coming in for care and coming back often to the ER,” she said.

In a news release, the CIUSSS calls the program “A Pathway to Recovery.” Located at the YMCA Tupper site, which previously housed hundreds of asylum seekers, the project offers 48 private rooms — including units for couples — to patients discharged from the Jewish General Hospital or Montreal General Hospital. 

But an outreach team is also in contact with patients from other hospitals as well as officials looking to fill the space quickly as the program, launched in mid-January, gets off the ground, said Roberge, noting it will help reduce the strain on hospitals as well as the patients.

“There’s such a big rotation between ERs,” she said. “A simple wound, while experiencing homelessness at the same time, can be very difficult to recover from.”

Many homeless people return to the ER after being discharged. This program hopes to change that

Often in those cases, hospitals will push for a longer stay or even a long-term care home for recovery which is less-than-ideal for a younger patient, she explained. 

But in this new space, the patients will have more autonomy, she said. They are connected to clinical services, case management and housing support. They can go to the CLSC for follow-up care and return to their private room, she said. 

Priority is currently given to referrals from the Jewish General, where the number of patients experiencing homelessness increased from 149 in 2022–23 to 339 in 2024–25, the CIUSSS says.

The site is currently at 58 per cent occupancy. The YMCA manages the building and psychosocial team, while the CIUSSS provides on-site nurses, social workers and addiction liaison workers. 

Roberge said the aim is to provide care to those who have substance addiction, signs of dementia, mental illness, mobility impairment and other issues. 

“It’s very diverse,” she said, noting they offer three meals a day as well as case workers to help find housing. “Some are very eager to look for housing.”

Unlike conventional dormitory-style shelters, this model provides embedded clinical teams integrated with hospital programs and allows stays up to 45 days — longer than most winter shelters.

The pilot was made possible by a temporary decline in demand for asylum seeker housing, though the site maintains the ability to reactivate beds as part of the immigration program, Programme régional d’accueil et d’intégration des demandeurs d’asile (PRAIDA), within 45 days if required, the health agency says. 

Upon completion, the project will be formally evaluated based on various criteria such as reduced emergency department return within 45 days and user satisfaction, the news release says.

As for Luckie, who has been on the streets since August 2022, he said it’s been rough, despite efforts like rehabilitation, to get himself back on track.

“We’re treated like rodents. We can’t make money. We’re stuck in a cycle,” he said. “They treat us like crap, but then where do you want us to go?”

Looking ahead, he wants to break the cycle and have a key to his own apartment so he can get a phone and a job.

“Everybody says get a job, but you need the phone first,” Luckie said. “You can’t go to work in the same clothes for a week.”

Staying at A Pathway to Recovery has helped, he said.

“I shower, I shave, I take care of myself,” Luckie said. “I buy clothes. I bought a tablet. I can go to my room and know my tablet is safe. That’s a big thing.”

---

---