The area of Notre Dame and King Street in Sudbury is bustling with activity as of late, and not just for their barbecue and car wash on July 21. It’s because of two organizations, Freed from Need and Sudbury’s Centre for Transitional Care.
The organizations are grassroots in Sudbury, started by two women who just felt they needed to do something to make the community better.
Freed from Need is a Facebook group started by Tina Lakatos. Stylist and owner of Fresh n’ Up hair care in the Flour Mill, Lakatos told Sudbury.com that her journey to creating Freed from Need, now with more than 8,000 followers, started with one pair of boots.
“I saw a man on the corner of the street, and I asked him what he needed,” Lakatos said. “He said ‘winter boots’.”
She posted the need on Facebook, but didn’t get the response she wanted, with many judgments thrown her way. Instead of withdrawing her request, she decided to create a Facebook page of her own, just for people to exchange free items. Freed from Need was born. “Everybody's welcome to ask for anything they need. There's no judgment, there’s no ‘get a job’,” she said. “If you need something, you are allowed to ask for help, and from there it just grew.”
What began with donations in her basement and a few people posting requests has turned into a place where you can post items you are willing to give away, post what you might need, and make connections within the community.
Donations are now kept and accepted at the Lakatos’ hair salon (495 Notre Dame Avenue) and monetary donations are welcome.
“People can come in if they need socks, clothing, cutlery, plates, any kind of thing they need.”
Freed from Need is also the first stop for anyone moving into the Notre Dame Avenue and King Street Area.
Right next door to Lakatos’ salon (and Freed from Need headquarters) is Sudbury’s Centre for Transitional Care (SCTC). Started by Jehna Morin, an associate addictions counsellor, the centre has a drop-in centre, and three different types of living situations to best suit the needs of clients.
Morin began with only one or two clients, often people she met while working with the vulnerable population of Sudbury during the pandemic, at the height of the encampment in Memorial Park. She worked outreach, and then, when someone was able to get a place to stay, she began helping them understand how to run a household, everything from making sure they pay their rent and get groceries to helping them understand how to navigate complex social assistance programs.
Then, Morin formed a partnership with a building owner. The owner would rent apartments to her clients, and in return, she would make sure they were able to maintain their housing and landlord-tenant relationship.
She has now gone from one apartment to more than 30 as transitional-style housing.
As a concept, transitional care is the space between acute care and independent living. As people are released from institutions like jails, hospitals or rehabilitation facilities, or after time without a place to live, it can be difficult to acclimate to the responsibilities of caring for a home.
“Once they come out of those acute-care scenarios, just to put them under a roof is not sustainable — they will not sustain their homes and they will likely fall back into the system,” said Morin. “And that's where the cycles were happening. So, in order to break those cycles, it's a matter of really teaching those life skills and getting their basic needs met. Because honestly, even if it's a meal, or having fresh clothes on their backs, it just gives them a little bit more sense of belonging. And that is really the key to SCTC is providing that sense of belonging.”
She manages her clients in 13 of 14 apartments at 495 Notre Dame, which is also the location of SCTC’s drop-in centre. There are also 18 apartments at 519 Notre Dame, six bedrooms at another rented house and now, thanks to a partnership with Raising the Roof, there are another four completed units in two houses, and three more new houses on the way.
The building at 495 Notre Dame also houses the head office and SCTC drop-in centre.
“It’s for anyone just to walk in, even if they are not a resident, and feel welcome; and it’s a chance ” said Morin. “And if they do wish to become a participant, then we're here and we can schedule an intake.”
And the community, particularly the Flour Mill area, is supporting what’s going on. SCTC recently received $59,100 from the Ontario Trillium Foundations Resilient Community Fund, and United Steelworkers Local 6500 has made lease payments for SCTC for the next seven months.
Morin said at one point, many of the area seniors were unsure about the clients, who spend time in chairs on the sidewalk, enjoying the sun and a cup of coffee. “Now they see those people everyday sitting out here having a coffee, nothing's wrong, nobody's harming anyone. They're just having a coffee,” she said. “Now, instead of sitting at the bus stop by themselves, the seniors will sit at the chairs and talk like neighbours, it's community.”
She said it’s not just important for the Flour Mill area to accept these people, but for her clients to see what a community truly looks like.
“Our vulnerable population has shifted, it's not just two or three or a handful of homeless individuals, suffering from alcoholism; no, we're talking about an opioid crisis and a housing crisis,” said Morin. “All of those challenges steered me in the direction of transitional care.”
And it’s working. Of all the more than 40 clients she is currently housing, there have only been five who have been removed from the program.
“We become that liaison between the property owners and the individuals that require the housing, right, so we put the owners a little more at ease,” said Morin. Each client is encouraged to pay their rent directly to the landlord from their social assistance, which makes the process easier as well.
It’s about creating a transitional home without judgment, said Morin, and teaching the skills to live independently.
“This is the setting where you learn to live with others, you learn to live with a neighbor, and a neighbor and a communal space that you have to keep tidy and all work together in a community,” she said. “And a place you can ask for help.”
You can learn more about Sudbury’s Centre for Transitional Care online here or on Facebook here. To find Freed from Need, visit their Facebook page, found here.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized communities for Sudbury.com.
