Streets to Homes

Streets to Homes is a program funded by the City of Toronto to help people with a history of homelessness to transition from living on the street to living in permanent housing. After being matched to an agency, Streets to Homes participants will get 12 months of follow-up assistance and counselling to help them get back on their feet, with the goal of giving them the skills they need to become self-sufficient and maintain their housing over the long term.

The case management service is delivered from client centered perspective including individualized case planning, motivational interviewing and brief solution focused technique

Case managers help Streets to Homes participants find and keep affordable housing, connect them to landlords, and build healthy habits to stay housed, including:

• Creating personalized maps of local services like community centres, libraries and food banks
• Ensuring that rent is paid on time
• Managing day-to-day living like groceries and cleaning
• Obtaining furniture for new homes
• Mediating between landlords and Streets to Homes participants
• Attending tribunal hearings for tenancy issues
• Finding new housing on short notice in the event of landlord disputes
• Ensuring that participants are on waitlists for subsidized housing

Our case managers also assist participants with paperwork for OW and ODSP, and when eligible help them apply for the Toronto Transitional Housing Allowance Program, which helps those receiving social assistance cover any shortfalls if there’s a gap between how much income support they receive and how much rent they pay.

Additional Services Beyond Housing

Staying housed for the long term depends not only on paying rent on time, but also on developing life skills. In addition to providing housing help, our case managers assess participants to determine what services they need and can connect them to organizations that address a variety of needs, including:

• Mental health counselling
• Withdrawal management centres
• Alcohol abuse recovery programs
• Income tax and personal ID clinics

How Our Follow-Up Services Work

The Housing Help Centre does not do intake for the Streets to Homes program directly. Instead, the City of Toronto outreach service makes initial contact with people who are living on the street or who have a history of homelessness. From there, candidates for the program are then referred to the Streets to Homes Assessment and Referral Centre (SHARC), which then matches participants to local agencies for follow-up support.

Our Supervisor

To get in touch with our Streets to Homes follow-up services supervisor, call Pushpmit Bhatia at 416 285 8070 ext. 203 or email pushpmit.bhatia@thhc.org.