A shelter with specialized care beds
Fabian Pena Roig thought it was hemorrhoids. “My rectum hurt and I was bleeding. » The 63-year-old homeless man, who was living in a tent, took ibuprofen in the hope that it would go away. “But it never stopped. » The diagnosis came months later during a stay at the CHUM for dark thoughts: cancer.
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“I was shaken, but I was happy because at least I knew what the problem was,” says the man with bipolar 2, who has been living on the street for four years. “It’s better to know what you’re fighting against than to ignore it. »
His fight against rectal cancer is not won. But he would have been lost in advance without the help of La Maison du Père, a Montreal organization that opened a unit to house itinerant men during medical treatments.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Fabian Pena Roig, in interview with our journalist
I had to have a place here, otherwise I couldn’t do chemotherapy.
Fabian Pena Roig
The CHUM had warned him: it was impossible to stay on the street during treatment.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Nurse coordinator Christine Jean shows us a room in the specialized care unit.
Fabian Pena Roig finally obtained a bed in the specialized health care unit of La Maison du Père thanks to a social worker from the CHUM. The hospital center has established a partnership with the organization, located very close to its facilities.
“I like everything here!” », says Fabian Pena Roig, met in his small single room, with a curtain acting as a door. “We eat 100 times a day! We have three meals, two snacks. »
In the modest common living room, he can watch television with other patients.
That’s without counting the shower, emphasizes the Argentinian of origin, a bit coquettish, who smoothes his hair back with gel and puts on perfume. On a small table in his room, among his few personal effects, sit three perfumes purchased, he explains, on “liquidation”.
Beyond physical comfort, Fabian Pena Roig “feels helped”. The unit’s care team, notably made up of auxiliary nurses and attendants, follows up on his medical appointments, gives him his medications and assesses his state of health.
If necessary, home care nurses from the CLSC des Faubourgs come on site to care for patients.
Patients who would be condemned
La Maison du Père set up its 10-bed specialized care unit five years ago. The organization wanted to give a chance of recovery to men suffering from cancer and living on the streets.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
In the unit, everything is put in place to ensure a space conducive to healing, as this poster demonstrates.
As they did not live in a “stable, safe and healthy place”, they could “not necessarily have access” to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, explains the CEO of the organization, Jaëlle Bégarin.
These people ended up with a conviction, because without treatment, the cancer spreads.
Jaëlle Bégarin, CEO of La Maison du Père
The CHUM has tried to offer chemotherapy or radiotherapy to people experiencing homelessness in the past. “There were some with whom it worked, but it was a minority,” says Constantin Georgiades, head of the social services sector. There were many of whom we lost track. »
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Constantin Georgiades (right), sector head of social services at CHUM, with Duane Mansveld and Christine Jean, from La Maison du Père.
The hospital center now entrusts these patients to La Maison du Père. The specialized care unit team can quickly report treatment-related complications to the CHUM. “Something that would not be possible if the person was left to their own devices,” explains Constantin Georgiades.
Nearly forty itinerant men stayed in the specialized care unit of La Maison du Père between September 2024 and August 2025. Many were housed there for wounds, others during their treatment for cancer, following an operation or amputation. Three received palliative care there.
When we visited in January, all the beds in the unit were occupied. According to the organization, patients are on a waiting list. “There is a shortage of places,” laments Christine Jean, nurse coordinator of the “Access Health” program at La Maison du Père.
This caregiver previously worked with children in intensive care at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center. She learned to know the traveling clientele and gain their trust.
“It’s certain that they are people who have their own character,” said the nurse, smiling. They are not used to being told what to do. » And health care is “not necessarily” their first concern.
When your priority is to take care of your basic needs – food, shelter, warm clothes – you are not at the point of taking care of your health. But here they can focus on that.
Christine Jean, nurse coordinator of the “Access Health” program at La Maison du Père
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Auxiliary nurse Sabra Jerbi and Christine Jean
The auxiliary nurses at La Maison du Père are there to “represent” them to their healthcare team. “Often, these gentlemen are not necessarily taken seriously,” says Christine Jean, headset screwed into her ear and walkie-talkie at her waist to communicate with her colleagues.
An awareness
For several men, this stay in the unit brings awareness, according to the team. “Often, they are much more burdened in terms of health than they had realized,” explains Christine Jean. The street, they say to themselves, “is perhaps no longer for them”.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
La Maison du père and the CHUM work closely together to care for and help patients staying in the specialized care unit.
Psychosocial workers from La Maison du Père discuss the future with them. “It could be social reintegration, therapy, or going directly to housing,” says Duane Mansveld, deputy director of the clinical services continuum.
According to Duane Mansveld, of La Maison du Père, 70% of the men housed in this unit relocate to transitional or permanent housing.
Fabian Pena Roig wants to return to living in housing. Arriving in Quebec 35 years ago as a political refugee, this is not his first fight. He overcame his addictions to crack, benzodiazepines (Ativan), cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, Ritalin and alcohol. “I’ve been straight for years. »
This former home renovation worker now dreams of transforming an old bus to accommodate homeless people at night. But everything will depend on his cancer. Her chemotherapy treatments are due to end in April. If the mass reduces, he will undergo an operation.
“I am confident. »
