Facilitating Intersectoral Supports in Social and Supportive Housing for Housing Stability - by Councillor Alejandra Bravo, seconded by Councillor Paula Fletcher

The City's Coordinated Access to Housing and Supports system provides a consistent way to assess, prioritize and identify people experiencing homelessness to City-funded housing and supports. To prioritize the distribution of housing opportunities to individuals experiencing homelessness, the City's Coordinated Access system uses a By-Name List. A By-Name List is a federal and provincial requirement and is a real-time list of people experiencing homelessness in Toronto who are utilizing overnight services provided by the City and its community partners. To support the tenanting of housing units through a coordinated access approach with other sectors including health care and mental health service partners, the City must first verify that the individual being identified for housing is experiencing homelessness. To proceed, Toronto Shelter and Support Services must establish data sharing agreements with other sector service partners including health and mental health partners that allow Toronto Shelter and Support Services to receive basic client data (e.g. name and date of birth) from service partners for the purposes of cross-referencing the By-Name List to confirm homelessness and share back this confirmation with the service partner. Expanded intersectoral supports in City-funded social and supportive housing ensure that individuals transitioning from homelessness are best supported to stabilize in housing and integrate into the communities they call home. Reason for urgency: There is need to secure Council authority to enable staff to enter into a data sharing agreement with intersectoral partners (including University Health Network) to advance the Social Medicine project that will provide necessary medical support services to people experiencing homelessness that are being housed in social housing in the city. A delay in securing Council authority may result in loss of available housing units and/or clients losing interest in participating in the project and therefore not accessing the needed health supports available through the project.

the purpose of allowing the partners to assess eligibility and identify individuals for housing opportunities through a coordinated access approach to housing and support service delivery, on terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Toronto Shelter and Support Services in consultation with the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, and in a form satisfactory with the City Solicitor.