Congratulations to the "CMHA Ottawa Condominium Program Study and Toolkit: Building Success in Housing First Treatment" on being awarded the 2022 Paula Goering Award Collaborative Research and Knowledge Translation Award. Read more about the award and its winners.
Housing First (HF) is an evidence-based program that has been shown to promote housing stability, quality of life, and community functioning for chronically homeless persons with mental illness and addictions in a large-scale, multi-site trial in Canada, At Home / Chez Soi, as well as several previous studies conducted in the U.S. (Aubry, Nelson, & Tsemberis, 2015).
The Canadian Housing First l Network – Community of Interest (CHFN-COI) assists communities across Canada to develop, evaluate, and improve Housing First (HF) programs based on the Pathways model tested, adapted, and shown to be effective in the At Home / Chez Soi Demonstration Project.
The CHFN-CoI (formerly the Ontario Housing First Regional Network Community of Interest (OHFRN-CoI)), consists of HF champions, HF programs across Canada, policy-makers planners, managers, service providers, researchers, and persons with lived experience, including representatives from the housing, health, and justice sectors and Indigenous housing and support providers.
The CHFN is hosted by the CAEH and Evidence Exchange Network (EENet) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Read What Is Housing First? to learn more.
Values
The CHEN-COI will be guided by the key values of social justice and equity, inclusion of lived experience and peer support, reconciliation, empowerment and consumer choice
Goals
The goals of this CoI are to:
- Build local capacity for HF programs
- Promote high-quality implementation of the HF model that includes both fidelity to and adaptation of the model
- Promote continuous program improvement through the provision of training, the development of HF program standards, the exploration of accreditation standards
- Advocate and influence public policy related to HF.
Steering Committee members
Co-chairs
| Name | Organization | |
| Geoff Nelson | Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario | GNelson@wlu.ca |
| Tim Aubry | University of Ottawa, Ontario | TAubry@uottawa.ca |
Knowledge Broker
| Name | Organization | |
| Rossana Coriandoli | Centre for Mental Health and Addiction (CAMH), Toronto, Ontario |
Members
| Name | Organization/title |
Andrea VanWiechen | CMHA Prince Edward Island |
Don Robinson | Indigenous consultant, Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Eric Latimer | Douglas Research Centre and McGill University, Quebec |
| Eric Macnaughton | University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver |
| Greg Bishop | Saint John Human Development Council, New Brunswick |
| Jason Medford | Justice-related Housing First program, Toronto, Ontario |
| Jenissa Grant | Person with lived experience, Ontario |
| Kathryn Gibb | Services and Housing In the Province (SHIP) |
| Kelly Goz | City of Windsor, Ontario |
| Kendra Giles | Phoenix Residential Society, Saskatchewan |
| Laura McKinnon | CMHA Prince Edward Island |
| Lisa Medd | CMHA Ottawa, Ontario |
| Michelle Bilek | Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), Ontario |
| Pio Giralico | Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Toronto, Ontario |
| Simone Lilly | End Homelessness St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Stephen Hwang | Unity Health Toronto |
| Taylor Jordan | Ontario Native Women’s Association |
| Tim Richter | CAEH, Alberta |
| Ty Silver | North End Community Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Wally Czech | CAEH, Alberta |
Related resources, news, and events
What is Housing First?
Resource | Aug 28, 2023Webinar: Evaluating system-level changes associated with Housing First
Event | Aug 10, 2023Webinar: Implementing Housing First Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
Event | Jun 2, 2023Webinar recording: International webinar series on Housing First: Housing First for youth
Resource | Apr 4, 2023Webinar recording: Creating system change through the adoption of Housing First principles and programs
Resource | Mar 30, 2023Policy and practice guide: Achieving a new systems perspective to ending homelessness through Housing First
Resource | Mar 20, 2023Publication: A New Systems Change Perspective – Demos Helsinki
Resource | Mar 20, 2023Opinion: A targeted rent subsidy would help prevent and end homelessness in Canada
News | Mar 7, 2023Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau in support of Homelessness Prevention and Housing Benefit
News | Feb 23, 2023Webinar recording: Building integrated knowledge translation into research: Two unique projects recognized with the 2022 Paula Goering Award
Resource | Feb 6, 2023International webinar series on Housing First: HF and the criminal justice system
Resource | Nov 14, 2022Watch Dr. Julian Somers' public hearing session on Kitsilano's supportive housing project
News | Aug 23, 2022Winners of the 2022 Paula Goering Collaborative Research and Knowledge Translation Award
News | Aug 19, 2022Dr. Tim Aubry's opening statement at the Consultation Meeting of the National Housing Council
News | May 4, 2022Housing First video from the Ministry of Social Development and Family, Government of Chile
News | Jan 10, 2022Video on Homelessness and Housing First in the Waterloo region
News | Jan 4, 2022Helping the homeless is within Region’s grasp
News | Dec 20, 2021Canadian Mental Health Association Ottawa's Condo Program Toolkit
News | Nov 23, 2021Webinar: Home Street Home
Event | Oct 25, 2021Fourth International Housing First Conference: Day one
Resource | Oct 22, 2021Fourth International Housing First Conference: Day two
Resource | Oct 22, 2021Fourth International Housing First Conference: Day three
Resource | Oct 22, 2021Fact sheet on homelessness and Housing First
News | Oct 8, 2021Tent cities are a result of failed social policies
News | Sept 7, 2021Fourth International Housing First Conference: Knowledge mobilization of evidence-based Housing First practices
Event | Aug 6, 2021Webinar recording: Housing First and women
Resource | May 6, 2021Webinar recording: Housing First, the 10-20%
Resource | May 3, 2021CMHA Ottawa condo program toolkit
Resource | Apr 5, 2021Evidence at a glance: Housing First and costs
Resource | Jan 21, 2021Pathways Housing First resource list
Resource | Dec 21, 2020International webinar series on Housing First
Resource | Dec 17, 2020Webinar recording: Racism and anti-racism in Housing First
Resource | Nov 9, 2020Housing First for youth: Free online training
News | Sept 14, 2020Evidence at a glance: Housing First and choice
Resource | Aug 4, 2020Evidence at a glance: Housing First and community integration
Resource | Jul 31, 2020Outcomes for youth living in Canada’s first LGBTQ2S transitional housing program
Resource | May 25, 2020Webinar recording: COVID-19, homelessness, and Housing First
Resource | Apr 27, 2020Webinar recording: Innovative ways to create affordable housing
Resource | Nov 26, 2019Webinar recording: Collective Care - Supporting one another and preventing burnout in Housing First programs
Resource | Oct 4, 2019Presentations from the Ontario Housing First 2019 Forum on Evidence-based Practices now available!
Resource | Mar 11, 2019Housing First is an effective intervention for homeless individuals with mental illness & low intellectual functioning
Resource | Mar 6, 2019Manual for pilot of collaborative fidelity assessment of Housing First programs
Resource | Jan 14, 2019Letter to Ministers Elliott and Clark on Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Housing First in Canada
Resource | Jan 8, 2019Policy brief: Assertive community treatment (ACT) and Housing First in Canada
Resource | Dec 18, 2018Webinar recording: Persons with Lived Experience (PWLE) in paid staff roles when implementing Housing First
Resource | Dec 4, 2018Webinar: The human rights approach to housing
Resource | Sept 13, 2018Portable housing benefit as an indispensable component of ending homelessness in Canada
Resource | Nov 9, 2017Housing First Self Assessment Tools
Resource | Oct 3, 2017Webinar recording: Fidelity assessment in Housing First
Resource | Oct 2, 2017Resources on the continuum of housing and homelessness
Resource | May 24, 2017Rent assistance: Ontario Housing First Regional Network Community of Interest
Resource | May 4, 2017From this point forward: Ending custodial housing for people with mental illness in Canada
Resource | Jan 4, 2013