WoodGreen believes that everyone deserves a safe place to live. That's why our Homelessness and Housing Help Services provide support to individuals and families with a history of homelessness or who do not have access to safe, affordable housing. We do this in a number of ways including assisting with housing searches, helping people apply for subsidized housing, advocating and negotiating on behalf of tenants, preventing evictions, and referring people to emergency shelter in crisis situations.

How can we help you?
What can you expect?
Community information and housing help
Support for individuals and families facing eviction
Emergency response to rooming house closures
Reducing drug use through harm reduction
Educating the community about rooming house issues
Rent supplement program for the former residents of tent city
The Bed Bug Resource Manual
How to contact us

Rooming House Emergency Response Plan  

How can we help you?

Our services are aimed at helping people find and keep housing that is affordable, secure and safe. Specifically, we help individuals in the following ways:

• Providing access to reliable housing information and related support services
• Assistance with finding and keeping housing through FREE resources, interest-free loans and grant programs (where individuals meet the eligibility criteria)
• Advocating for the maintenance and improvement of low-cost housing for tenants
• Assistance with finding emergency shelter and long-term shelter in the case of evictions, fires, evacuations of rooming houses, and other crises

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What can you expect?

We work with individuals and families who are homeless or under housed in East Toronto. While all of our services are FREE, in some cases individuals must meet specific criteria. To get more details about our services and eligibility requirements, please drop in to WoodGreen's Info Link Community Information and Housing Help Centre at 835 Queen Street East. Or you can call us at 416-469-5211 ext. 1175

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Community information and housing help (ext. 1175)

WoodGreen's Info Link Centre provides one-on-one support to people struggling to find affordable housing and those trying to maintain their housing.We provide the following:

• FREE phone and fax services, as well as TTC tickets and information ?all to help you with housing searches
• Information about and assistance applying for subsidized housing
• Up-to-date information on the Tenant Protection Act
• A list of local landlords who have units to rent
• Referrals to other services
• Landlord and tenant mediation, and eviction prevention services

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Support for individuals and families facing eviction (ext. 2166)

Through its Rent Bank Service Project, WoodGreen helps individuals and families (not receiving social assistance) facing imminent eviction by providing:

• Interest-free loans to cover the rental arrears for those who have received eviction notices
• Negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution services for dealing with landlords
• Assistance and advocacy (for those receiving social assistance) in accessing additional financial support
• Access to other loan programs

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Emergency response to rooming house closures (ext. 1145)

In partnership with The Salvation Army and the Canadian Red Cross, WoodGreen's Rooming House Emergency Relocation Project provides 24-hour, 7-day-a-week emergency response to rooming house closures, fires, urgent hazards, or essential service cut-off. Specific supports for rooming house tenants include:

• Connection to emergency shelter, food, clothing and legal services
• Linkages to social assistance for additional financial support
• Assistance with long-term housing

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Reducing drug use through harm reduction (ext. 1194)

WoodGreen helps to restore the fundamental human rights of people with drug use and health issues by reducing homelessness and increasing access to high-quality affordable housing. Through our Harm Reduction and Housing Project, we provide:

• Help for individuals in obtaining and maintaining housing
• Ongoing counselling and support to individuals housed in the community
• Information to the community about harm reduction

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Educating the community about rooming house issues (ext. 1276)

While licensed rooming houses are an essential source of low-cost housing in the community, they have been steadily declining in numbers and unregulated, unsafe dwellings are taking their place.WoodGreen's Rooming House Policy, Protocol and Education Project works to reverse this trend by:

• Developing protocols and policies for the maintenance of rooming houses
• Educating landlords and neighbours about the importance and benefits of well-run, licensed and properly maintained rooming houses
• Working to expand the number of licensed rooming houses

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Rent supplement program for the former residents of tent city (ext. 1114)

WoodGreen provides assistance to former residents of Tent City who are housed with private landlords through Toronto Community Housing Corporation's Rent Supplement Program. We help with everything from housing searches and resettlement assistance, to landlord mediation, eviction prevention and ongoing crisis support.

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How to contact us

To find out more about how we can help you find affordable and safe housing, please call 416-469-5211 ext. 1175 or e-mail housinghelp@woodgreen.org

Our Location:
WoodGreen Homelessness & housing Help Services
835 Queen Street East
Toronto, Ontario
M4M 1H9
Click here for map

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