Etobicoke Housing Help Centre

Report From Last AGM

The Housing Program at Albion originated in the fall of 1993 when the agency applied successfully to the Ministry of Housing for funding to establish a housing help centre service. The work of the Housing Program in its early years was focused on developing an automated housing listing of private market rooms and apartments in Etobicoke and on helping low-income clients look for housing. In the late 1990s, additional funding became available from the City that resulted in new staff being hired to do eviction prevention work, including providing Rent Bank services. This new funding also led to the creation of a specialized housing service to help clients from the Latin American community.

The growing crisis in street homelessness led, in 2002, to the creation of the Albion Street Outreach Service that provides van-based street outreach to people who are living outside. In 2005 a new dimension was added to street outreach work with the hiring of a Street Outreach Housing Worker who works with street outreach clients to place them in private market housing and other types of housing. Another initiative undertaken in 2005 resulted in the hiring of a new tenant community support worker who provides tenant support services for TCHC tenants in several TCHC buildings in central Etobicoke through a contractual arrangement between Albion and TCHC.

This year Albion has significantly expanded the follow-up services it provides for homeless clients who have been placed in housing. A number of new follow-up staff have recently been hired to do home visits and provide case management services to enable formerly homeless clients to get connected with community resources and stabilize their housing situations.

One significant indicator of the major changes that have been experienced in the Housing Program over the years has been the increase in housing staff since the inception of the Program. From a complement of 2.6 FTE housing staff in 1993, the Housing Program has expanded to include 14.8 FTE staff today.

In 2005 the Housing Department has;

Placed 236 people in new housing

Prevented 583 people from being evicted

Moved 223 homeless people off the street

Services provided

Eviction Prevention Service | Housing Help Counselling | Street Outreach | Landlord Outreach and Recruitment | Housing Followup Support Services