Across Canada, supportive housing providers face a patchwork of overlapping and inconsistent regulatory frameworks.
The absence of a shared definition of supportive housing has produced a fragmented policy landscape marked by uneven service delivery, siloed funding, and unclear regulatory oversight. These ambiguities undermine efforts to ensure those at risk of homelessness are provided the supports and protections they need to stay housed and live independently.
This report explores these challenges and proposes solutions. It compares a range of supportive housing definitions used to guide programs in Ontario, British Columbia and at the federal level. Assessing their strengths and limitations, it concludes by recommending defining characteristics that could provide the basis for a consistent and effective approach to delivering supportive housing.
Key Takeaways:
- Only in BC is supportive housing found to be regulated by a relatively consistent legal framework. Among federal bodies, notable inconsistencies are identified between the expectations laid out in “Reaching Home” and “National Housing Strategy” documents. In Ontario, similar inconsistencies are identified between provincial bodies responsible for health and housing, which provide differing guidelines for how supportive housing should be funded and defined.
- The absence of a consistent supportive housing framework undermines efforts to plan, fund, and safeguard housing for those at risk of homelessness. It has contributed to: uncertainty around tenant rights and operator obligations; inconsistent referral criteria and accountability frameworks, and; siloed funding streams, with poor coordination between health and housing budgets limiting service integration.
- There is an urgent need to develop a consistent framework for delivering supportive housing effectively. The report identifies four defining characteristics that could provide a basis for this framework:
- Tenancies are secure and not time-limited;
- Serves people experiencing or at risk of homelessness;
- Services and supports are provided on a voluntary basis;
- Operated by non-profit or government providers
You can download the full report here and read the research highlights here.