Sorting life, one load at a time. For some it is a simple ironing apron, for others a uniform to wear, for others a towel to fold; but still for others, this piece of fabric serves as a solid stepping stone towards a better future.
That’s what StreetSuds is all about, a social enterprise that helps some of the city’s most vulnerable find a path to employment, and which celebrated its 10th anniversary last spring.
The small commercial laundry nestled in the back of the old Grover Textile Building on Parthenais Street, a few blocks from the north foot of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, is a branch of the St-James Day Center, which offers resources for inner-city populations struggling with a combination of issues related to homelessness, mental illness and addiction.
StreetSuds was founded in 2012 as a vehicle for meaningful change for a specific clientele, says CEO and NDG resident Matthew Kerr. The project was entered into McGill University’s Dobson Cup social enterprise competition and won a cash prize of $5,000. “It was a big deal, that’s how it all started,” Kerr said. The suburbs. These funds, combined with the generous support of Hockey Helps the Homeless, funded the first steps and machines in the laundry room.
StreetSuds currently employs 13 people – including Kerr and two full-time managers – as well as 10 workers led by Emploi-Québec’s PAAS-ACTION social assistance and support program. The Vocational Rehabilitation Program provides eligible social assistance recipients with an additional monthly allowance of $130 and reimbursement for transportation or child care expenses in addition to their monthly benefits.
Individuals work 20 hours per week on a one-year contract basis. “We help them with life skills and routines that they can manage,” Kerr says, adding that employees are referred by a variety of sources, including the homeless shelter system, the Stevedoring employment service and d other organizations dealing with mental illness. “We work on goals and objectives, relationships, conflict resolution, budgeting; we regularly check in with them on their progress and what they think of the work.
St-James drop-in manager Alain Spitzer says StreetSuds was designed “because we had a lot of men and women who were homeless, recipients of our services, who were really very good workers and volunteers. We wanted to find a way for some of them to find work. Spitzer, who is also from NDG, said there was little buy-in from traditional businesses to hire, “so we decided to create something ourselves.” This something had to be teachable, demanded and appropriate for people who are out of school or who have been on the streets for a while. Enter StreetSuds, also known by its French nickname, Buanderue.
When not in the laundry room, Kerr — who ran for mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce last year and recently lobbied the administration about of the slow progress of affordable housing projects – drives around Montreal in the StreetSuds van, except on Wednesdays when he cooks in St-James.
“We’re a very diverse team,” he says. “Male and female, white, black, different ethnicities, ages 29-63.” Sometimes they take on youth workers who do court-mandated community service hours.
Kerr says it can be a grueling pace for some, even if it’s less accelerated than some larger traditional commercial laundries, “but it’s hours and hours of folding laundry.” Some ask to come back for a second year, and a few leave on their own to seek employment independently. “Absolutely for sure, that’s definitely the end goal, getting them out…” Kerr said. “I feel like we’re doing something right.”
Their client list includes corporations and institutions large and small across the island, from small Airbnbs, large hotels and restaurants to Stade Saputo concessions, the Old Brewery Mission and the Ronald McDonald House. In fact, every time a hotel, spa, residence, or refuge uses their laundry service, they get more than professional washing, pressing, and folding; they help to reinvest in people who do not have the opportunity to earn an income in the ordinary labor force.
Kerr says the fact that StreetSuds is powered by this model is nice and serves as an additional selling point for customers. “But at the end of the day, it’s a quality service for their money. A nonprofit helping vulnerable people in the community is a good hook, but if the quality isn’t there, they don’t care. That’s why we’re running a pretty tight ship.
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