‘I’d be dead’: Hamilton-based pilot project lands homeless patients a bed of their own

Homeless and addicted to crystal meth, Jeff Butler was already on his last rung.

Then he tripped over a snowbank and badly hurt his leg on the walker he was using.

I don't know how in God's name. Only I could do this with a walker."

He wound up in the hospital with a nasty infection in his banged-up leg.

Throughout his stay, the 54-year-old grew anxious about being discharged back onto the street in his fragile condition.

Instead, he found himself on the third floor of Good Shepherd's shelter on Mary Street.

There, he became the first patient in a 10-bed pilot project that bridges gaps between housing and medicine.

Since March, it has admitted 42 patients, offering a soft landing for those with nowhere to go after they leave the hospital.

Butler found compassion in nurses, personal support workers and doctors, who not only helped him with his leg, but also treated his hepatitis and addiction.

And as the clincher, after years of homelessness, they set him up with a subsidized apartment with ongoing support.

I'll tell you one thing straight from my heart: if this place had not been here, I don't believe I'd be alive right now."

Colin Kinsey feels the same.

I'd be dead. I'd 100 per cent would be not alive," he says during a recent return visit.

Kinsey says he spent last winter outside after he was kicked out of shelters for drug use.

When he arrived at 135 Mary St., he'd suffered through septic shock, Kinsey says.

Staff gave him antibiotics, understood his drug use (now in check") and helped him find a room to rent. This place is like a miracle, like literally."

Gavin Urie recalls reaching a grim crossroads after months sleeping on the porch of a derelict home.

An ulcer on his backside kept becoming infected, but he was eventually referred to the transitional beds unit.

It was that this thing could kill me," reflects Urie, 36, as a staffer redresses sores on his feet.

The street is no place to heal after hospital stays.

When I recover from an injury, I'm on my couch. I have my feet up. I have family and lots of supports around me," says Melissa Watson, a registered nurse who co-ordinates care in the transitional beds unit.

For our guys, I think that's a big thing that's been lacking for them, and kind of creates this giant circle of reinfection."

Homelessness makes it difficult for people to keep appointments and challenges doctors to keep track of them amid a daily scramble to survive.

Dr. Tim O'Shea, a physician with the Shelter Health Network, which is a partner in the transitional beds initiative, can attest to this.

We will pour our hearts and souls and try our best to make sure that people get their medicines, and their tests and whatever else, but if they're not housed, we hardly ever see that bar move at all."

But once a person is housed, suddenly the switch flips and things start to get better," O'Shea says.

Staff at the transitional beds unit also strive to offer a flexible alternative for patients who don't cope well in conventional health-care settings, often due to issues with addiction and mental health.

There are certain people that don't fit into that box," says Kaley Connelly, a registered nurse who manages the initiative and helped launch it in March.

Connelly meets patients in hospitals to get to know them before they are referred to her. Many have had negative experiences in hospitals, on top of challenges in the social-service and criminal systems.

It becomes very overwhelming, and there really wasn't a place where all of that could be dealt with in a supportive environment that isn't punitive."

A key component of the project is a case manager who helps arrange for apartments or rooms for patients.

There are also followup efforts with people in the community after they leave.

It could be just a friendly knock on the door, help picking up medication, or even a hand with housework, Connelly says.

It can sometimes make the difference between somebody succeeding in their own housing and not."

But it's a complex formula and not everyone has left 135 Mary St. with an apartment.

It some cases, participants were arrested again; other times, they opted to stay in a shelter instead, Connelly says. We continue to engage with them."

And demand continues to outstrip the unit's 10-bed capacity. Four patients are waiting to be admitted.

Good Shepherd has urged the province to continue supporting the project, which was initially allocated $1.2 million over a year, says Brother Richard MacPhee, the executive director.

I think we've basically seen that it is a way in which we'll save the health-care system substantial dollars, and (on) top of it, free up acute-care beds for those who need them the most."

Butler, meanwhile, is grateful for stepping through the unit's doors when he did.

This was the best thing that ever could have happened to me."

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com