Advancing Inter-Sectoral Action on Harm Reduction and Anti-Racism in the Supportive Housing Growth Plan
Background
The Toronto Supportive Housing Growth Plan (the Growth Plan) is a 10-year, intersectoral strategy to grow the supply of supportive housing in Toronto, improve access to supportive housing, and enhance care for clients through collaboration across sectors. It was collaboratively developed and signed onto by housing and supports organizations from across the health, housing, and disability and inclusion sectors, with ongoing involvement and support from other partners in government and health sectors.
Central to the Growth Plan is a mission to increase the supply of supportive housing in Toronto and improve access to housing as a key social determinant of health. Targeted interventions are needed to ensure that all individuals in need of affordable housing with supports have equitable access to this housing and to the health services they need to maintain housing and improve health and wellbeing. This project is centered on cultivating the intersectoral partnerships needed to develop and implement such critical interventions. To be effective and positioned for implementation, these interventions must be co-designed with people with lived experience, and with the actors who have critical expertise and roles to play in implementation.
This project seeks to deepen the intersectoral collaboration established through the Growth Plan through new partnerships, and to formalize and expand partnerships with the health sector and with organizations led by and serving racialized people in the social services sector. It will lay a foundation for ongoing intersectoral action to execute the Growth Plan, and model and enhance the capacity for ongoing intersectoral collaboration and action towards advancing health equity and strengthening housing as a social determinant of health.
This project is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, overseen by the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness, and delivered in collaborative partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto, and the Supportive Housing Growth Plan signatories. The Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness will be the primary point of contact for the project and will oversee and receive the deliverables from the successful Proponent.
Overview
Supportive housing provides essential stability and supports that facilitate access to housing as a social determinant of health for people experiencing homelessness. Different types of supportive housing are provided by different sectors (housing, health, etc.), and funded and/or regulated by various departments across all orders of government. A person-centered approach to supportive housing demands the development of intersectoral collaboration across these sectors.
The Growth Plan convened leading agencies from across health, housing, homelessness, and social service sectors to develop a collaborative relationship, to break down silos separating the service planning and delivery, to identify shared priorities, and to establish collective strategies necessary to improve services and access to this critical resource.
This project will expand on that work and drive successful progress in the implementation on two priorities of the Growth Plan: harm reduction and anti-racism. It will strengthen and formalize partnerships between municipal partners, community organizations, housing providers and health providers to enhance access to harm reduction services in housing settings and streamline the integration of leadership from organizations that are led by and serving racialized communities and people with lived experienced to co-design improvements to advance health equity. It will expand the capacity of multiple sectors to establish and grow a network of community partners to address urgent needs of people experiencing homelessness in the City of Toronto.
2.3 Goals, Objectives, and Scope of Work
This project advances three key goals for intersectoral action to address housing, access to health services, and racism as social determinants of health:
Equip all supportive housing organizations participating in the Growth Plan to successfully develop and implement explicit harm reduction policies at all sites and expand ease of access for all supportive housing providers to the tools and strategies developed through this plan.
Cultivate and strengthen partnerships between the health sector, the municipal government, and supportive housing providers from the housing, health, and disability sectors to bring access to harm reduction services to all supportive housing clients who would like to access them – including those in dedicated buildings and in private market housing.
Cultivate and strengthen partnerships with racialized communities to integrate their leadership across the Growth Plan, to address inequities in supportive housing access and outcomes, and to develop a coordinated approach to sector-wide implementation of tools for working directly with racialized clients on program and service delivery co-design.
The project’s scope of work and deliverables fall under four main objectives:
Objective 1:
Equip all supportive housing organizations participating in the Growth Plan to successfully develop and implement explicit harm reduction policies at all sites and expand ease of access for all supportive housing providers to the tools and strategies developed through this plan.
Deliverables in this objective include stakeholder mapping, developing and strengthening community partnerships across health, housing, and homelessness sectors, identifying gaps and inconsistencies in harm reduction policies across the supportive housing sector, identifying services and tools available, and developing recommendations, policies, and guidelines informed by community and stakeholder engagement.
Objective 2:
Cultivate and strengthen partnerships between the health sector, the municipal government, and supportive housing providers from the housing, health, and disability sectors to bring access to harm reduction services to all supportive housing clients who would like to access them – including those in dedicated buildings and in private market housing.
Deliverables in this objective include expanding opportunities for collaboration with Toronto Public Health, working with Community Partners to develop training recommendations on overdose prevention and harm reduction, and expanding organizational skill development opportunities on harm reduction within the supportive housing context
Objective 3:
Cultivate partnerships with bodies providing harm reduction services to bring these services to supportive housing clients in their catchment areas.
Deliverables in this objective include identifying harm reduction services and catchment areas, working with community health providers to explore and develop partnerships with housing providers, conducting community engagement research with lived experts, and developing knowledge mobilization materials
Objective 4:
Develop intersectoral strategies to integrate the leadership of racialized communities across the Growth Plan, address inequities in supportive housing access and outcomes, and implement a coordinated approach to sector-wide implementation of toolkits for working directly with racialized clients on program co-design.
Deliverables in this objective include stakeholder mapping and outreach to community agencies led by and serving racialized individuals in need of supportive housing, identifying opportunities for expanded leadership for those stakeholders within the Growth Plan strategies, establishing partnership opportunities, and engaging with supportive housing clients with lived experience of racism to identify barriers to equitable access to supportive housing and strategies for dismantling those barriers including, but not limited to, policy changes, training requirements, and system improvement recommendations.