Barely enough room to turn around in it, yet for Samuel Tangie his small room at the Red Road Lodge on Main Street is more than enough.
"I like it quiet, I like meditating and I read mostly,” said Tangie.
Two months ago and for the past 20 years, he lived on the streets in the St. Boniface neighbourhood.
Thanks to two new housing programs inspired by his late friend Faron Hall, Tangie now has a place to call his own.
"I wasn't reading. I wasn't painting. I didn't have a proper place," Tangie added.
Marion Willis developed the programs after meeting Hall in 2009.
"He would be thrilled. He'd be so proud," said Willis.
Hall was known as the Homeless Hero, for twice saving people from drowning in the Red River.
Hall himself drowned in the Red this past summer.
But before he died, he helped Willis develop ways to support his homeless friends.
One of the programs based at Red Road Lodge is called the Warm Zone, where homeless people discharged from hospital will be able to stay inside for a while, instead of going back to the streets.
"When somebody is in hospital like Sam had been, he's not going to have to be at risk about going back under a bridge before he's ready. He will actually have an opportunity to come to a location like this with wrap around services working in collaboration with WRHA," said Beverly Burkard of Red Road Lodge.
One former hospital administrator says, the 10 beds, could help save money and resources for the health care system.
Francis Labossiere volunteers in the programs and is the former head of Victoria Hospital.
"For the most part, I think hospitals tend to keep them for a very long time, until there is another option to release them," said Labossiere.
The new program won't officially be launched in the spring but it's already helping Tangie find a bigger and better place to read.
The other program is called the Comfort Zone and it will help homeless people in the St. Boniface neighbourhood find temporary housing that works for them.
