A man from Sault Ste. Marie was able to break the cycle of homelessness with the help of a local men’s shelter. Staff at St. Vincent Place helped enable him to get back on his feet and now he wants to emphasize the need to assist and fund those kinds of services.

Richard Stone hates doing dishes, but you'll never hear him complain about doing them.

"That's almost like a luxury because when you don't have it, you don't have it." said Stone.

Stone knows what it's like to not have anything, because until this month, he was homeless.

From the summer of 2016 until October of 2017, he lived in the bush in the east end of the city in a tent, which is now covered in snow.

"Because I got kicked out of my brother-in-law's apartment and I couldn't find a place right away, so I just bought a tent and pitched it in the bush." said Stone.

In November, he made the decision to pack up and leave the tent and checked into the St. Vincent men's shelter.

"I knew this winter was going to be really cold and I’m getting old. I knew I wasn't going to be able to survive another winter in the tent." said Stone.

"We had 422 males aged eighteen or over come through our shelter in 2017. Richard was one of them." said Nat Cicchelli of St. Vincent Place.

Stone returned to the shelter for a visit, looked over the room that he called home for three months and got emotional, knowing how important the shelter was to him.

"It helped save my life. It was weird coming here." said Stone.

Wednesday marked the ten-year anniversary of the death of his wife. He says that is what triggered his slow path to homelessness and it wasn't because of what some people might think.

"People put this stereotype on people who are homeless. They figure they are on drugs all the time, they drink all the time. I don't use drugs, I hardly drink.” said Stone.

Sometimes, he says it's just that people are down on their luck and before they know it, they end up on the street.

Stone is thankful the men's shelter was available to use when he needed it. He says he will soon be volunteering there to give back to those who helped him out.