{"id":82182,"date":"2025-08-14T09:11:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/?p=82182"},"modified":"2025-08-14T09:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:12:01","slug":"when-your-life-careens-off-course-francois-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/when-your-life-careens-off-course-francois-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"When your life careens off course: Fran\u00e7ois\u2019 journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fran\u00e7ois is 59 years old. Today, he is living in transitional housing after a period of great instability and drug use that saw him lose his home and wind up on the street.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After 25 years of marriage and two children, Fran\u00e7ais found himself divorced and all alone in his condo. After he met a woman from the street and started using drugs with her, everything fell apart. \u201cWe used drugs until all of my money ran out, and I had to sell my condo to pay my debts. That put us out on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find support, he started going to the day centre at Pas de la rue, a community agency that helps people aged 55 and over who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shelters and housing centres everywhere are seeing the same thing: the population in a situation of homelessness is getting older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the passing weeks, his reality hit him full force. \u201cI was downtown next to the Berri metro station, and the only things I had left were my bags. I said to her, \u2018I have no choice, I have to leave.\u2019 I hugged her, got on the metro, and left. That’s when I started going to therapy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he was finishing his program, he was offered a place to live at Pas de la rue. \u201cI still had a week and a half of therapy left when I was told I had an apartment in the Relais program. I was so happy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fran\u00e7ois moved into an apartment and began to rebuild his life. He is learning to cook, maintain his apartment, and keep a budget. A counsellor helps him set realistic and concrete goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the day centre, he has a routine, meals, activities and, above all, a community. \u201cWe’ve become a bit like a family.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cYou have to relearn how to live, and maybe even learn how to live with yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today, Fran\u00e7ois is celebrating four years of sobriety. He has reconnected with his children and now sees his son every week and his daughter regularly too. He has also become a grandfather. \u201cI’m so glad to be here now to experience these moments. It\u2019s really amazing!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he recognizes that he has received a great deal of support, he stresses the importance of personal commitment. \u201cWhat I say to people is that, if they want to get out, they can get out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the video<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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1 out of 5 people receives our help.
5 out of 5 people benefit from it.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let’s all lend a hand<\/font><\/b><\/span>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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DONATE<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Supporting a network of over 375 community agencies also means promoting an inclusive, poverty-free society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fran\u00e7ois is 59 years old. Today, he is living in transitional housing after a period of great instability and drug use that saw him lose his home and wind up on the street. After 25…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":82176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"35747,50345,52763,41892,1077,62203","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[674],"tags":[673,678],"content-type":[493,705,709],"sector":[182,816],"class_list":["post-82182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-inclusion","tag-household","tag-homelessness","content-type-articles-en","content-type-videos-en","content-type-testimonials","sector-centre-sud","sector-mercier-est"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-19 02:50:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82182"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85231,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82182\/revisions\/85231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82182"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=82182"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=82182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}