'I moved from a packsack to a palace,' said James Ralph, who just moved into his new suite after years in the street. (CBC)Men who have spent years or decades on Ottawa's streets and in shelters are "starry eyed" after moving in to apartments with couches, bathtubs and other luxuries they haven't had in a long time.

"I lost my breath and my eyes went big like saucers and I went, 'Holy Cow!' and then I thanked God," recalled James Ralph of the moment when he first laid eyes on his new home Monday afternoon.

His suite in The Oaks, a newly opened supportive housing facility on Merivale Road, has a double bed, peach-coloured walls, matching flowered curtains and a bedspread.

Ralph, 58, said it is a huge change from the shelter where he has spent the past year in a cot, among 40 other men.

"The weather outside is dreary, but inside my heart is very cheery 'cause I moved from a packsack to a palace," said Ralph, who has lived much of his life on the street.

He planned to immediately take advantage of the opportunity to do something he hasn't been able to do in a dozen years: "Fill that bathtub with hot soapy water and just lay in it for about an hour and a half and read my book."

Ralph was one of the first of 55 homeless people who are moving into The Oaks, located in a former Cardinal Suites motel in the Carlington neighbourhood, west of Central Experimental Farm.

Four seniors also moved in Monday, and other men and women of all ages will join them over the next three months.

24-hour staffing

'Everybody yesterday was sitting on the couches — nobody's ever had a couch,' Wendy Muckle recalled Tuesday. (CBC)Ottawa Inner City Health, which coordinates access to health services for homeless people, will staff the building around the clock to provide health and social services. Many of the incoming residents have a range of health problems, including Ralph, who suffers from chronic lung disease, mental health issues and alcoholism.

Wendy Muckle, executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health, said Ralph wasn't the only one excited by their new furnishings.

"Everybody yesterday was sitting on the couches — nobody's ever had a couch," Muckle recalled Tuesday.

The men brought everything they owned, contained in one or two garbage bags each.

"To actually have their own bed, their own couch, a table a chair…a bathtub — those are just things that everybody else takes for granted, but they definitely were pretty starry-eyed yesterday."

The former Cardinal Suites motel was purchased using $5 million from the federal and provincial governments. (CBC)Volunteers have been helping to provide furniture and to make the suites more homey — one has been knitting afghans for the beds.

"This is the kind of program and the kind of environment that they need to continue on their journey of being healthy and well," Muckle said, adding that many issues can't be solved while people are living in shelters.

"It strips away their dignity. It strips away their ability to actually cope in society because people respond to the environment around them. When you live in a nice place you take care of it, you behave in a certain way."

Muckle said The Oaks won't just benefit those moving in, but will also free up beds in the city's overflowing shelters.

"This will, in a small way, relieve some of the pressure on shelters and get people up off the floors and into beds."