The Café Rencontre's thrift store will expand thanks to the investment of $622 833 from the Federal government.
The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos announced three projects, including the acquisition of a new building, will allow Café Rencontre to continue to offer necessary services for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, have low incomes and for youth.
Through the Canada-Quebec Reaching Home Agreement, the federal government is committed to preventing and reducing homelessness across the country in urban, Indigenous, rural and remote communities. Quebec provides financial support for the organization's operations through the Community Organizations Support Program.
The acquisition of the new building will better support the organization's thrift store by providing three times the size of the space to centralize essential resources and have access to a warehouse. The thrift store will be able to receive more donations of clothing and other items and thus increase its revenues, which contribute directly to filling the plates of its soup kitchen.
The funding will also be used for the Porte-clé Program, which supports the organization's clientele with moving in or out of homes for people who are homeless or experiencing residential instability.
Everyone deserves a safe and stable place to call home, but far too many people face the daily unacceptable reality of homelessness. In 2019, the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec concluded the Canada-Quebec Agreement on Vers un chez-soi, recognizing that the deployment of this program must respect Quebec's jurisdictions in health and social services, the orientations, priorities and organizational structures of Quebec services, which makes it possible to develop and implement community plans with clear results in order to meet local priorities and the needs of specific populations.
