The Byron Project

Building community relationships to address homelessness

At one point in his life, Byron St. Amour spent his nights sleeping on a bench in Delhi Park. On a hot summer day in 2013, he enrolled in a course at the Prince Edward Learning Centre, then located in the Armoury, just so he could have a cool place for his dog to get a bit of respite from the heat. Seeing that Byron was homeless, PELC Executive Director Kathy Kennedy made a phone call to Brian Hart, asking if there was room for Byron at Kate’s Rest, a place where men on the margins of society could find a welcome. Byron stayed at Kate’s Rest for nine years, and took pride in being the longest resident at the site. On New Year’s Day, Byron was taken to hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm, and he died five days later. “Byron was a very central character here. He became an advocate for people who were homeless. He would find people and invite them to come here. He would say to me, ‘I found a wonderful home here and I want to share it with them.’ He wanted to reciprocate with others, and it was very touching that Byron had that vision. He didn’t want a lot in life; he just wanted a place he could call home, he wanted a partner he could share his life with, and he wanted a job that could provide him with a little income. By the time he died, he got all of those things,” says Hart.

Byron’s story has much in common with the other residents at Kate’s Rest. Hart says that building relationships is as much a part of addressing homelessness as is building tiny homes or shelters. “What’s so vital is that we let these folks who are homeless into our hearts and into our lives. We are poorer if we don’t. I am a very wealthy man, not in material ways, but in the fact I have so many wonderful people that I share my life with on a daily basis. And I think that is a very important piece. The service providers and the housing people are an important part, a vital part, but we need to go that one step further as a community to create healthy, welcoming relationships with people who are homeless.” To help foster building those relationships, Kate’s Rest has initiated the Byron Project. The project will collect stories of people to describe their experience with the community when they were homeless, it will record stories of people in the community who encounter or work with the homeless, or those people who have friends or relatives who are homeless. These stories will be included on the Kate’s Rest website (katesrestfoundation.ca), and the project will culminate with the installation of a plaque in Delhi Park (pending County approval) commemorating those who are homeless and acknowledging those in the community who are working to end homelessness.

Byron St. Amour.

Hart says that if people within a community are living on the street, it is an outward sign that things inside the community are not well. “Growing up, we were led to understand there is a social services and health services safety net that will catch you before you fall. But the net has many holes now, and we as a community need to do some mending. It’s not from lack of resources that we don’t act, but rather a lack of appreciation that the vulnerable people who are living on the street are a vital part of us. Without including them we fail to be a whole and healthy community.” He says that storytelling will help the broader community to understand the experiences of homeless people— how they survived on the street, whether the people they encountered made a difference in their lives. “Telling stories is a way for us to understand the complexity and possible solutions to the issue of homelessness. Listening to other people’s stories brings us in touch with our humanity, and recognizing that we share that humanity with everyone, including the homeless. Storytelling has the power to heal memories, to create a vision of where we should go, it can change our hearts and embolden our commitment to be sure that the experience of people being left on the streets to fend for themselves never happens again in our County. These stories will help us resolve to work to make changes in order to leave no man, woman or child homeless.”

There are currently 20 residents at Kate’s Rest, who would otherwise be homeless were it not for the work of Brian Hart and his team. Some residents have been there for many years. There is no time limit of the stay at Kate’s Rest. Some former residents have been there for as little as a weekend—one man referred by the John Howard Society stayed for a weekend before being invited to share a room in a house owned by a former resident who now has a successful contracting business.

Some of the people referred to Kate’s Rest come there with extreme needs, and in the past this has led to some OPP involvement. However, over the past few months changes have been put in place to help these residents manage, including regular visits by a public health nurse. The success at Kate’s Rest has garnered interest from several university researchers, who are looking at ways to translate the best practices at this facility to other rural areas. Two cabins onsite will be refurbished as part of this research project, and one of the residents—Ryan Brough, who has been at Kate’s Rest for eight years—is being trained as the site manager. Kate’s Rest has also attained charitable status, and a board of directors is now in place.

Brian Hart is well aware that homelessness is a complex and far-reaching problem, of which Kate’s Rest can only address a small piece. “It has been found that homelessness costs the County in many ways. Beyond the financial costs of social, health and policing services there are the deeper costs impacted upon the community’s spirit and wellbeing. To begin the process of healing those community wounds, the Byron Project proposes to bring community members together to begin the storytelling of their experience of homelessness, either from their lived experience or from their direct or indirect encounters with those experiencing homelessness. And from those stories, we would hope to begin to reimagine our community as becoming whole, inclusive, healing and restorative. In our storytelling, images of restorative justice will certainly arise, as will those of healing, mutuality and forgiveness. And from those images, great new beginnings may arise within our community that could lead to a better understanding and response. That will always be the primary project for Kate’s Rest—make an end to homelessness in the County.”

Kate’s Rest is seeking volunteers to help with the Byron Project. For more information, please visit katesrestfoundation.ca or call 613.476.3600.