National Housing Day – November 22, 2018

On November 22, CMHAPeel Dufferin joins communities and organizations across the country to mark National Housing Day and recognize the challenges faced by many people in finding a place to call home.

National Housing Day calls on the need for safe and affordable housing for all Canadians. Across the country, 1.7 million people are in need of housing and at least 235,000 people experience homelessness each year.

In November 2017, the federal government announced a 10-year, $40-billion National Housing Strategy to help reduce homelessness and improve the availability and quality of housing for Canadians in need.

CMHA recognizes housing as a key social determinant of physical and mental well-being. Particularly, supportive housing is crucial to recovery for many people living with mental health or addictions issues. Evidence indicates that having a place to call home means a better quality of life and success in education and work. Housing with appropriate supports is shown to improve outcomes from even severe mental health and addictions problems.

In partnership with other stakeholders, CMHAs continues its efforts to promote the need for housing in general and supportive housing in particular for people with lived experience of mental illness.

CMHAs have called for increased investments in housing, as well as the need to reduce barriers to housing as one way to reduce the overall costs to health care, police and justice, and social services sectors.

CMHA Peel Dufferin offers Outreach Program for individuals, 16 years and over, and families who reside in Peel Region and are homeless, transient or at imminent risk of homelessness.Peel Outreach Services offers a continuum of Housing Support that seeks to end homelessness in the Peel Region and increase access to mainstream services. This multi-agency collaboration consists of the Region of Peel, Peel Addiction Assessment and Referral Centre (PAARC), Supportive Housing in Peel (SHIP), and CMHA Peel Dufferin. Interested individuals/families can contact Peel Outreach Services for referrals or more information: Phone: 1-877-848-8481 x2; Fax: 905-451-5183 or Email: peeloutreachteam@peelregion.ca

Visit https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-policy/social-determinants/housing/ to learn more about the importance of housing for mental health.