Themes	Categories	Quotes
“Kind of like a real home”	Resident input existing community	Jarod “Oh, that was great too, like because we… I was camped out in the woods for a while and then other people came out there too and they started coming down to interview us asking why we weren’t in the (shelter name). And we all had very good reasons why we weren’t there and they took those considerations and kind of used them as a basis for making this place in the first place. So, I think that went a long way to making this what it is now.”
	Privacy	Peter “a little more dignity and respect. Yeah. Having our own little private unit. Like it’s all the difference in the world.”
	Autonomy	Rebecca “It’s nice to actually get a place that’s kind of my own, my own area. You know, I can clean my clothes when I want, shower when I want, [get] food I want.” “Yeah, so there’s more a sense of being able to come and go as you would in your own home, right, and being able to set your own rules.”
	Autonomy	Caroline “Yeah. I think the advantages is that you have your personal freedom and your personal rights at the same time as having shelter. It’s not as rigid as a shelter, you can come and go as you please and you can eat when you want. You know what I mean?”
	Meeting needs	Sammy “Yeah. And they also give food for pets. They supply that too…Yeah, so that’s good. Well, it’s a bonding thing. Like it’s like kind of like a real home. Like, right?”
	Meeting needs	Mark “The fact that it was a roof. I had some heat, because when I got here there was a cold spell that was going through…but I needed a place that I could have my surgery and heal because well you can’t really heal in a tent. You could but there’s more of a risk for infection and stuff like that.”
	Autonomy low-barrier	Peter “It’s not getting bullied around or kicked out of your—away from your stuff for the whole duration of the day or like having to carry everything, you know, when you’re in crash beds. Like it’s just a lot of bullshit. Just the jumping for (sic) the hoops for the sake of jumping through hoops.”
“It’s like a buddy system”	Harm reduction	Jarod “Some people here are, you know, addicts and as such they need to take care of their addictions. People here are not against that. In fact, they kind of encourage it to be done in a safe environment rather than behind closed doors where it’s unsafe.”
	Harm reduction low-barrier meeting needs	Mark “Like you know, like there’s a lot of people here with mental issues, a lot of drug addicts, stuff like that, and you tend to do the blind eye thing but you still keep an eye on them, if that makes sense…I know all the fenny users here and I make sure that if I see them doing something or I know they’re doing something…they’ll actually come up to me and say check on me in ten minutes, and I check on them every ten minutes for three or four times. Once I hit that fourth time, I know they’re past that initial stage. They’re not going to do the death thing any more or whatever. So okay. You’re good, and I let them know, you’re good. All right. It’s all done. It’s like a buddy system,”
	Meetings needs	Casey “I really am grateful for this program. I’m just happy I got to, had the opportunity to be involved in it…I believe that it’s as very good thing for people to have…this whole community thing, like having a small community is a really good thing for people that are in my situation…because I believe it gives you an advantage of getting back to the basic fundamentals of living…I believe that that is very, very, helpful…because there’s a lot of people live here like me and like I believe that…it helps them mentally.”
	Meeting needs	Casey It sucks when you go and you get your own place and then you are kind of isolated now again and it’s like, it’s like that causes depression. That causes like, that causes people to relapse. That causes a lot of things, right, and it’s like you don’t have the… if you don’t have people around you and the supports then you are kind of (profanity), you know…it sucks in a way because I like having people around
“It’s the same size as a jail cell”	Autonomy	Sammy “It’s like a jail. It’s kind of like a (profanity) halfway house kind of. That’s what I think.”
	Autonomy meeting needs	Caroline “You know, it’s the same size as a jail cell, but it’s warm.”
	Autonomy meeting needs privacy	Mark “I figure like for every ten people you should have a shower or at least a toilet or something like that, and there’s like 30 of us here and there’s only the one shower and, you get the point,” “(T)he heaters can be turned off. Because there was a lot of half decent days that didn’t need a blistering heat in the rooms and some of the rooms are a little more susceptible to heat. The windows aren’t big enough to even get anything to blow out really. Other than maybe get the walls a little thicker so you’re not listening to the people next door to you or you can actually hold a conversation in your room without having ten ears eavesdropping, because that’s pretty much what it is right now…There’s no privacy. Like basically it’s like a college dorm gone wild. Somebody scratches their ass five doors down you can tell them how many fingernails they broke. You know what I mean.”
“To keep us on focus”	Meeting needs Low barrier	Jarod “(The) staff’s ability to keep us on focus when we’re getting things done that need to get done…for example, I mean that was a big one there. I have a hard time trying to fill out forms and things on the computer that are very confusing to me sometimes. So, for them to be able to help me get through that, that’s been very helpful. Phone calls too, same thing. If I call the government offices for example, are so frustrating to me that I can’t really get through an entire phone call a lot of times…” Interviewer: “You feel supported by the staff here? Interviewee: Yup Interviewer: Treated with respect by the staff? Interviewee: Always, always, always. I’ve never had a bad day with them yet, and even if I did, for what I’ve saw that they’ve handled themselves very professionally, very courteously and very forthcoming to the emotional and physical needs of whoever they deal with. So always, yes
	Meeting needs	Casey “Like and when I first started staying here, it was good…like the staff…was warming to me and like they were cool…I like them a lot because…they’re warming and they’re not judgmental and they just, they seem like they do understand for the most part. And it’s good to have because they’re not…basically stuck-up people that are just there for their pay and like whatever. They actually do kind…of give a shit, you know. And that’s a good thing to have.”
	Meeting needs autonomy staff capacity	Casey “I don’t think staff should like, here…should be having to deal with like a lot of like the mental health issues at hand. Like they’re not…like for the mental health, like how severe sometimes it is here. Like a person like [Name] that’s like screaming at the top of her lungs, like…I could hear that girl screaming from the basketball court. And that’s not cool. Like that’s not, that’s not fair to people that live around here…because like she obviously has like a very, very severe issue and like I don’t think the staff is equipped with like that knowledge or the skills to basically deal with that, with that person.”
	Meeting needs	Caroline “There should be a screening process…And those with severe mental health issues should be off in one spot with specialized workers for mental health issues…Because there’s been numerous problems with that, on our site specially.”
	Staff capacity	Noah “a little grumpier or have their own things going on in their life” and therefore could use a program “just for like the workers themselves.”
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do after”	Uncertainty	Jarod “It depends on what time of the pandemic you’re referring to. At the beginning of it I was doing not so great. Then it got a little better. Then I came here and did a lot better. And now it’s coming to an end and I’m not sure what I’m going to do after that. It might be a lot worse.”
	Uncertainty	Casey “Like, like the City can come here and shut this place down any time. Like you know, like we can be (profanity), we can get screwed over big time.”
“Too much bloody money in too little hands”	Meeting needs	Casey “a place to socialize and be with other people—otherwise you’re isolated and that causes depression.”
	Meeting needs	Rebecca “A regular building. A regular apartment building with numbers on the doors,” “I think something like this would be a good way to start it up, although… (there should be) certain things that would differentiate between people that are able to govern themselves and people that are not. Some people here don’t have the life skills necessary in order to be on their own and live on their own housing environment…programs (have to be) available to them that can teach them…and kind of guide them in the right direction…I think this place, as good as it is, needs to address those issues…so they can actually not just release people into the wild and say good luck but actually instead follow up on things where they can see the progress of what’s been done and see the needs of the people…Some people here definitely can be put into housing right away, but not everyone can, and I think the ones that can’t might have to have a different program altogether for it. Something like this maybe but something separated at the same time if it’s possible.”
	Meeting needs	Mark “…(T)otal revamp of the system. Rents are way too high. Landlords are more scummier and slummier nowadays than they ever were because they can get away with it a lot more because there’s no enforcement…There’s enforcement on like the renters as being evicted or this, that or whatever. Like we get the shaft 90 percent of the time instead of the landlord being held responsible for their end. They need to do something about the rising cost of housing to begin with. Whether there should be a cap or whatever, I don’t know…I’m not privy to those numbers…All I know is that it’s…way too high according to the basic salary that people make, myself included. I’m on welfare right now and I’m lucky to get a room for what I can afford on what they give me…”
	Meeting needs	Mark “(F)or every apartment building that they put up, they should put up one of similar, if not value or size or whatever, for combatting homelessness…Like if they can afford to do that, they got more than enough money that they’re going to make off the damn thing, help the cause out. There should be some sort of law or tax thing that puts in, you want to do this, you got to put in this much. You know, you got to give to get, right? …That’s the way I look at it because there’s too much bloody money in too little hands is what it boils (down) to.”