TORONTO \u2014 A philanthropic organization says it\u2019s donating $25 million to establish a new system for tackling homelessness in Toronto that will use an evidence-based approach to move people off the streets and into supportive housing.<\/p>\n
The Slaight Family Foundation says the money will go to a St. Michael\u2019s Hospital research centre, as well as non-profit United Way Greater Toronto, to establish the Slaight Family Housing Lab \u2014 a program that aims to put roofs over people\u2019s heads while providing wraparound services.<\/p>\n
Dr. Stephen Hwang, director of St. Michael\u2019s Hospital\u2019s MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, says the new program draws on the centre\u2019s research into the benefits of a housing-first approach. <\/p>\n
Hwang says the housing lab will work with the City of Toronto to identify open supportive housing units while case management teams work with people living on the street to get them ready to move.<\/p>\n
Hwang says the pre-move help can include getting people identification and ensuring they\u2019re in good tax standing so they can be eligible for supportive housing units and other benefits. <\/p>\n
The wait list for social housing in Toronto was more than 100,000 names long in 2025, but Hwang says he\u2019s optimistic the program can successfully house 300 people over five years based on the MAP Centre’s previous collaborations with the city.<\/p>\n
The physician and researcher says the work doesn\u2019t stop once people get housed. Case management teams will follow program participants for years, helping them access clinical care, addiction treatment, employment services and more to ensure they stay housed long-term. <\/p>\n
Heather McDonald, president and CEO of United Way Greater Toronto, says the housing lab is about \u201cdoing whatever it takes to get people into housing,\u201d and teams will tailor their responses to individual needs. <\/p>\n
McDonald says organizations in the group’s network \u2013 including Na-Me-Res, which supports Indigenous men, and Margaret\u2019s Housing and Community Support Services, which supports women facing homelessness \u2013 will play pivotal roles in the new program. <\/p>\n
Hwang believes the housing lab can help Toronto\u2019s overburdened health-care system in particular, since homeless people visit health-care facilities, especially emergency departments, at higher rates than the general population. <\/p>\n
A Toronto project with a similar housing-first approach, Dunn House, was created specifically to provide supportive housing for homeless people who frequently visit emergency departments. That model has been a success for its residents and the University Health Network.<\/p>\n
Hwang said the Slaight Family Housing Lab is a step in the right direction toward ending chronic homelessness, but more needs to be done to ensure every Canadian can afford a place to call home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to invest more funds, we need to invest them in long-term solutions, not in short-term Band-Aids,” he said. “That\u2019s why this ($25 million) gift is so wonderful because it\u2019s doing both of those things. It\u2019s addressing urgent needs but it\u2019s also creating long-term solutions.”<\/p>\n
One of the goals of the housing lab is to pioneer a model for addressing homelessness that other municipalities across Canada can replicate, Hwang said.<\/p>\n
Homelessness is only getting worse in Ontario. A report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario estimated that 85,000 people were without a home in 2025 \u2014 a 7.8 per cent increase compared to the year before.<\/p>\n
The Slaight Family Foundation, which was founded in 2008 by late Canadian radio pioneer Allan Slaight, says Toronto’s homelessness crisis “demands urgent action,” and it’s proud to support front-line work to address it.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 A philanthropic organization says it\u2019s donating $25 million to establish a new system for tackling homelessness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-511455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}