Housing Services

Emergency and housing support is provided to the community members who are experiencing homelessness or formerly unhoused through assistance in, finding adequate housing and receiving necessary supports once housed to remain housed.

Vital partnerships with housing providers and support agencies across the City help ensure that the people we serve find appropriate housing while receiving support with budgeting, health promotion, income stabilization, conflict resolution, eviction prevention and community supports.

Heyworth House
2714 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON M4C 1L7
e. laetitia.gomez@dixonhall.org

Dixon Hall 24hr Respite Center
351 Lake Shore Blvd East, Toronto, ON M5A 1C1

e. andrew.ssemambo@dixonhall.org

354 George Street
354 George Street, Toronto, ON M5A 2N3

e. Bob.Ssebaggala@dixonhall.org

“Layered support” in housing refers to a system where individuals needing assistance with housing stability receive a combination of different support services, tailored to their specific needs, often including case management, financial assistance, mental health support, employment training, and other services, all working together to ensure long-term housing stability; essentially providing multiple levels of support depending on the individual’s needs at any given time. 

Key points about layered support in housing:

Multiple levels of support:

• This approach goes beyond just providing housing and includes various services like counseling, life skills training, medical assistance, and advocacy depending on the individual’s situation. 

Individualized approach:

• Each person receives a personalized support plan based on their specific needs, challenges, and strengths.

Collaborative approach:

• Often involves partnerships between housing providers, social service agencies, healthcare providers, and other community organizations to coordinate services effectively. 

Focus on long-term stability:

• The goal is to not just provide temporary housing but to empower individuals to maintain stable housing over time by addressing underlying issues contributing to housing instability. 

Each of the programs in the Housing Services Department have grown to meet the pressing needs laid bare by the pandemic. Our Food Programs are no different and have consequently grown dramatically to meet the persistent needs around food access and food security, particularly salient in Toronto’s Downtown East. 

Beyond the Tuesday night dinner and Friday morning breakfast programs offered at 58 Sumach Street, we now serve meals and provide food hampers 5 days a week, in an effort to keep up to the growing needs of the communities located in Toronto’s Downtown East.

We remain vigilant in our efforts to meet the food security needs of the communities in our direct neighbourhoods of service. Through ongoing innovation and foresight, these programs will continue to grow and shift to meet the needs of the communities we serve.

Food Services programming demonstrates how income disparity and access to the social determinants of health is falling short of meeting the needs of far too many in our city. Moving forward, strategic lobbying and real time data will help us reinforce the needs of these communities, and help us focus our efforts at building coalitions to collaboratively tackle the income disparities that lead to the gaps in access to the simple and critical pleasures and necessities of food. 

Volunteers and peers help prepare and serve food to participants. Visit our Volunteer Department  page to learn about volunteer opportunities.

Harm Reduction is a central tenet and principle that guides all the work we doing creating more opportunities for stable and safe housing opportunities.

Our Harm Reduction Workers and Peers support individuals in our shelters and housing programs by providing training, workshops, referrals and contemporary trauma-informed knowledge imparted in a compassionate and supportive manner.

Visit www.canadianharmreduction.com to learn more about Harm Reduction.

Dixon Hall is partnering with Reconnect Health Services to deliver supportive housing at 504–508 Parliament Street. Several tenants will be moving into the building as part of this initiative. These units will provide homes for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, along with wraparound supports to help tenants maintain stability. 

Through ongoing case management and coordinated services, tenants will receive the support they need to stay housed, support their health and wellbeing, and remain connected to the community. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to safe, stable, affordable, and dignified housing that strengthens both individual lives and the surrounding neighbourhood.

Learn more about Rooming Houses Here.