An Aboriginal youth assumes traditional peaceful pose in front of a mural at a downtown youth drop-in renovated with HPS funds.

Homelessness Partnering Strategy: New RFP
The City of Toronto is looking for proposals from organizations that serve homeless individuals or those at-risk of homelessness.  Proposals may be for one or more of the following areas:

• Building Improvements & Acquisitions;
• Special Projects & Innovation
• Research & Sector Development

Please refer to the Request for Proposals Proposal Requirements and Funding application for further information.

There will be an information session for this RFP on May 30, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. in room 309 Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto.

Funding is provided by the Government of Canada, Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS), which is administered by the City of Toronto.

The deadline date for proposals is Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at noon.

Ottawa's investment in ending homelessness in Toronto
The Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) is a federal program to prevent and reduce homelessness. Since 2000, federal investments have helped Toronto to build new affordable housing, to offer services that support people moving from the streets into their own homes, help homeless people get the ID they need for social assistance and housing, and provide job coaching and pre-employment skills training so that vulnerable people can gain a foothold in the working world.

New agreement in place
The City of Toronto has signed a $51.9 million, three-year agreement with the federal government (April 1, 2011 through to March 31, 2014).

Toronto HPS by the numbers 2007-2011
Federal investment is crucial for Toronto: in 2010 it accounted for more than 40% of all spending on homelessness services, excluding emergency shelters and social housing.

• $69.2 million invested by the federal government in Toronto programming for homeless and vulnerably housed people, about the same on an annual basis as the 2011-2014 agreement
• 400 community projects
• 42,000 homeless and vulnerable people served
• 68 new units of transitional/supportive housing
• 128 capital improvements to community faciltiies
• 15 Aboriginal projects received $9 million in capital investment.
  

See a recent presentation reviewing HPS investments in Toronto and details of the outcomes that resulted. The August 2010 staff report to Toronto City Council outlines the HPS program, including funding amounts and recent program successes.

20% for Aboriginal Projects
About 20% of homeless people in Toronto self-identify as Aboriginal, far higher than the representation in the general population. As directed by the Community Plan and by Council, 20% of the HPS spending is allocated to Aboriginal agencies for initiatives and services targeted at ending homelessness among aboriginal people. Learn more

Since March 2007, $12.14 million has been invested in Aboriginal programs that provide intensive supports to Aboriginal clients and build agency capacity to meet client needs,as well as a number of capital project, including:

• a 60-bed shelter for Aboriginal men
• a drop-in centre for Aboriginal women and their children
• 20 new supportive housing units for Aboriginal families
• a 12-bed transitional hostel and a new transitional home for Aboriginal male youth, and
• improvements to two Aboriginal housing developments.