The Old Brewery Mission (OBM) in Montréal, Canada, has received C$5 million ($3.74 million) from the Tenaquip Foundation to develop a mixed-use transitional housing residence for community members experiencing homelessness or at risk of being unhoused, the Montreal Gazette reports.

The grant from the foundation—established by the late Kenneth Reed, founder of Tenaquip, Ltd., an industrial supplies distributor—will help fund renovations and improvements to a formerly derelict two-story building in the Montréal borough of Lachine to create an 18-unit mixed-use residence that includes 13 studio apartments with their own kitchens and bathrooms, and five units with larger spaces to accommodate families with children. OBM will staff the facility, which is expected to open in 2024, providing social support services, employment counseling, and permanent housing assistance. The project, estimated to cost C$8 million ($6 million), will also be supported by government funding directed to OBM.

According to the Gazette, the project arose from a conversation between foundation executive director Michael Fitzgerald and OBM chief executive James Hughes, in which Hughes declared “the only way to end homelessness is to put people in homes.” The foundation, a longtime supporter of OBM, sought out the housing services group with the offer to develop the facility as part of an effort to directly address the upsurge in area homelessness that began with the COVID-19 pandemic and has only increased since. Earlier efforts “felt like we’re just giving money and putting Band-Aids on stuff,” Fitzgerald told the Gazette.

“It was like a dream come true, falling right out of the sky,” Lachine borough mayor Maja Vodanovic told the Gazette. “As a municipality, we don’t have the money to build something like this, and we don’t have the funds to run it. But we see the needs every day.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/katleho Seisa)