Services for veterans in Canada can be unclear and difficult to navigate for civilian service providers working with veterans. In this article, we feature two Montréal-based initiatives that aim to improve services for veterans through collaboration, the Old Brewery Mission and Respect Forum. We begin by providing background information about Canada’s recent history of military engagements and veterans affairs issues. The first example of collaboration presented is the Sentinelles de la rue (Sentinels of the Street) program, led by the Old Brewery Mission. The Mission works with Montréal’s homeless men and women, meeting their essential needs while finding practical and sustainable solutions to end chronic homelessness. The Mission is now developing a collaborative model in partnership with government departments, veterans peer support organizations, and local health and social services to house and support homeless military veterans. The second example is Respect Forum, a not-for-profit initiative that has been organizing networking events in Montréal, Québec since 2016. The aim of these events is to promote military–civilian and multisectoral collaboration to improve services for veterans. Respect Forum meetings have made it possible to begin bringing together and mapping out local and national service providers working with veterans.

The provision of shelter to individuals experiencing homelessness creates a 24/7 community of co-living in which the common denominator uniting members is lack of housing. Women of all ethnic, racial, religious, cultural backgrounds, as well as members of 2SLGBTQ+ communities, find themselves co-living in the shared and often challenging transitional space. As services have shifted to “open the door” to provide more inclusive access to services, little attention has been paid to the experiences of diverse communities within co-living spaces. Questioning the assumption that shared loss inherently binds a community of homelessness service users to a common identity, this research asks: what discourses of heterogeneity of service users emerge in descriptions from women experiencing homelessness of their trajectories through transitional housing services to stable housing? Interviews were conducted with 33 service users in a women’s transitional housing service between 2016-2018 in Montreal, Canada. Data collected over two waves of semi-structured interviews focused on service usage, homelessness histories, transitional programs experiences, and well-being, featuring 33 and 12 interviews, respectively. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed several instances of participants reflecting on the challenges and benefits of engaging with the heterogeneity of individuals in the space: reflections centered on the unsuitability of services, mental health and substance use, gender identity, as well as a sense of solidarity. In addition to an unexplored complexity associated with inclusive transitional housing user experiences, this analysis underlines a desperate need for refined perspectives on inclusive service policies.

Homeless populations require spaces and services that take into account their life trajectories. The Aging in the Right Place - Environmental Checklist (AIRP-ENV) is an environmental audit tool developed by our team to evaluate the accessibility and overall design features of housing targeted for aging individuals experiencing homelessness. Researchers in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal employed this tool in 2021 to evaluate environmental features in selected promising practices to identify built environment factors that promote aging in the right place. Preliminary findings reveal the following themes across sites: access to communal and recreational spaces encourage social inclusion and meaningful recreation opportunities; barrier-free built environment features foster independence and safety; and access to services and amenities encourage community mobility. Findings demonstrate a need to employ a broader evaluative lens that incorporates psycho-social factors to gain a nuanced understanding of aging in the right place for older adults who have experienced homelessness.