A local woman says she bought a four-bedroom house for four homeless people who'd been living in tents up until they moved into their new rental home on Jan. 2.

"I just felt in my heart I wanted to do something," she said.

The woman - a grandmother and retired social worker in her 60s - says she volunteers at the One Roof Community Centre program.

There she listens to people while they eat at the hot-meal program at St. John's Anglican Church.

The woman - we'll call her Mary - said she doesn't want her name used because she doesn't especially want credit.

Nor can she accommodate further requests for housing from other homeless people: her house is now full.

But she wants to tell her story, she says, because it's important to show how sometimes concerned citizens can come up with creative ways to help.

It all started when The Warming Room homeless shelter closed for good on July 1, Mary said, and more than 40 tents were set up at Victoria Park and 18 were set up on the property at St. John's Anglican.

"I drove by tent city and I literally cried," she said. "I was deeply disturbed."

Soon she contacted Christian Harvey, the executive director of One City Peterborough.

Harvey had been the director of the Warming Room shelter that closed; now he leads One City Peterborough, which focuses on housing the city's marginalized people.

Harvey said One City helped Mary with every aspect of the project: workers house-hunted with her and then found four people who were living in tents together who wanted to move into a home as a group.

One City workers are now serving as property managers, Harvey said, and agency staff are also checking in on the new tenants and offering practical support managing their household after having been homeless for a long time.

"It can be a hard transition from homelessness to housing," Harvey said. "But also, all of them (the tenants) are hugely resilient."

Now, nearly two months later, Harvey said the four tenants are settling well into their new west-end rental home.

Harvey said this is not the only house One City Peterborough manages this way: two other houses bought by private citizens are being occupied by previously homeless tenants, under the same arrangement.

Mary won't say how much she paid for the house, but she says it's been worth it.

"We want people to know: there are ways people can help."

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joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com