Can Dunn House in Parkdale rival Finland’s housing model?
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Can Dunn House in Parkdale rival Finland's housing model?
Members of Toronto’s Housing Rights committee say Dunn House, a rent-geared-to-income building launched last year, is on the “cutting edge” of social housing — but still needs one key improvement.
Dunn House on 90 Dunn Ave. is a four-storey supportive housing site in Parkdale with 51 rent-geared-to-income homes.
: City of Toronto.
Sebastian Tansil
Caring mastermind who loves spending quality time with friends and family. Empathetic and precise economist by training. Loves amber yellow as it reminds him of people dearest to him.
June 6, 2025
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Dunn House was praised as a housing success story earlier this week — but the requirements to get a unit leaves some unhoused Torontonians on the streets, advocates say.
Toronto’s Housing Rights Advisory Committee met at City Hall June 3 to discuss Dunn House’s “promising practices in supportive housing.”
Dr. Andrew Boozary, a primary care physician and executive director of the Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine at the University Health Network, and Valesa Faria, executive director for Development Review at the City of Toronto, presented key findings from the initiative, framed as a “successful model of supportive housing and a solution to address homelessness.”
Dunn House is a four-storey building with 51 rent-geared-to-income and supportive homes at 90 Dunn Ave. in Parkdale. It opened in October 2024.
It’s operated by the charity Fred Victor and is the result of a partnership between University Health Network (UHN), United Way and the City of Toronto — with some funds from Ontario Health and the Federal Government.
Dr. Boozary said Dunn House uses a “social medicine housing care model.” That means it provides tenants with low-barrier access to health support, such as detox and harm reduction kits, and referrals to UHN specialist care. It also ensures tenants receive social and community support, with a specific focus on relationship and trust building, as well as fostering tenant autonomy, Dr. Boozary explained.
Diana Chan McNally, a community and crisis worker in Toronto’s downtown eastside, highlighted that one eligibility criteria to receive housing in Dunn House is experiencing multiple emergency room visits.
- This means that often, unhoused people are discharged from hospitals and back onto the streets before getting supportive housing at Dunn House, McNally said.
- She asked if there is a transitional program available to bridge the gap for unhoused people between hospital admissions and supportive housing.
- Bee Lee Soh, an anti-poverty advocate and a member of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee, added that there are many homeless people who gave up on trying to go to the hospital and who are just waiting in despair to die on the streets.
- Soh asked if Dunn House can support these people who don’t go to hospitals.
Dr. Boozary said that these questions are a good example of the limitations of the current model and that many people with the greatest health-care needs aren’t even showing up at the emergency room.
- He said Dunn House has expanded eligibility to take into account the number of days a potential resident spent in the hospital, as well as the number of hospital readmissions.
- He added that Dunn House is trying to work with other partners to provide support for people who are missed by their current model.
- The Dunn House team will consider collaborating with peer support workers at The Neighbourhood Group to identify people who may have not been captured by health-care use alone, he said.
- Joseph Stalteri, director of Service System Planning and Integrity at Toronto Shelter Supportive Services (TSSS), said that TSSS connects discharged patients with colleagues across the health sector (UHN, St. Michael’s, Unity Health, etc.) However, there are many people who are discharged and reliant on the shelter system, but don’t have access to health-care support at the shelter, he said.
Lindsey Lemieux, a member of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee and a self-described survivor of the Ontario Disability Support Program who successfully obtained housing after experiencing homelessness, said she was sobbing throughout the whole presentation. She thought about her dad, who died trying to detox from suboxone and who would've benefited from a program like this, which combines health and housing, Lemieux said. This kind of supportive housing model is the most cost-effective way to support unhoused individuals with health needs, she added.
Ann-Marie Moulton, a social work practitioner and member of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee, said that Dunn House is on the “cutting edge” of something “phenomenal” in Canada. Moulton asked how Dunn House’s model differs from Finland’s housing first model to eliminate chronic homelessness.
- Dr. Boozary said that Dunn House offers health-care support on site and a harm reduction approach that's missing from Finland’s housing-first model.
- Faria said that Dunn House also offers individualized care for residents beyond healthcare. That includes coaching residents in active living, helping them buy groceries and other wrap-around support.
Gord Perks, City Councillor for Parkdale-High Park, said that there will always be some community members, including in his own ward, who are opposed to having supportive models like Dunn House in their neighbourhoods.
Perks said that instead of trying to push back against negative public opinion, providers of services like Dunn House should focus on working with supportive partners to create the supportive housing models needed in their communities.
He encouraged Dr. Boozary and Faria to proactively form those relationships with neighbourhood partners in the proposal stage.
What were the outcomes of the discussions?
The Housing Rights Advisory Committee recommended that: “Councillor Gord Perks submit a letter to Executive Committee on behalf of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee to request that the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat continue to advocate to the Provincial and Federal government for a funding portfolio that supports the expansion of deeply affordable housing development in the City of Toronto, including funding for the operation of these housing models.”
After the motion was read out, Coun. Perks said: “And people wonder why citizens are alienated from government. It’s the most convoluted motion ever.”
Housing Rights Committee chair Elizabeth McIsaac then asked him to put the motion in plain language.
“ We would like to provide advice to Toronto City Council that they should be advocating or continue advocating for block funding for supportive housing,” he said. Block funding is money from higher levels of government that are distributed to lower levels of government with more flexibility on how to spend it on issues such as housing.
Commenting on the challenge of the municipal Housing Rights Advisory Committee to effect change given that provincial and federal governments have more power and funding, Coun. Perks added, “ The complicated part is how this committee relates to the elected committees…So, because I'm elected, I can write a letter to other electeds [representatives].”
“There's a better way. We'll find it,” he said.
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