The City is in the process of developing its 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, which will serve as a roadmap to support people experiencing homelessness through measures that:
The plan, which is being led by Toronto Shelter and Support Services (TSSS), is being developed through consultation with staff, partners and interested stakeholders. It will be presented to members of the Economic and Community Development Committee in 2025.
Toronto Shelter and Support Services is the City’s shelter system manager, directly operating and funding community agencies that deliver:
The Division’s top priority is to ensure that those experiencing homelessness have access to temporary accommodation when they need it, as well as wrap-around and housing-focused supports to help ensure homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring. To do that, the Division works with community partners and stakeholders to deliver person-centered, outcome-focused services to help improve the overall well-being of individuals experiencing homelessness and help connect them with housing.
The 2025-2030 Strategic Plan will utilize a multi-divisional and sector-wide approach, propose major initiatives with defined outcomes, and create a multi-year blueprint for making strategic decisions and investments around homelessness. It will be designed to be adaptive, so that it can pivot to respond to the evolving needs to those experiencing homelessness over the Plan’s five-year span.
The Strategic Plan will replace the Homelessness Solutions Service Plan and will align with the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan and the Homelessness Services Capital Infrastructure Strategy 2024-2033.
Solutions to homelessness require an all-of-government, multi-sectoral, and community-wide approach. As such, the City has begun engaging with a wide range of audiences to help inform the development of the Strategic Plan.
The first phase of the engagement process was led by an external consultant, SN Management, with support from TSSS staff. Input was gathered from nearly 600 participants, including homelessness service providers, sector and intersectoral partners, City staff, Indigenous partners, and other key stakeholders, including people with lived experience of homelessness. Stakeholders were engaged through in-person and virtual engagement sessions, as well as a survey. Engagements began in the fall of 2024 and concluded in early 2025. The findings have been summarized in a report developed by SN Management:
The next phase of the engagement process is currently underway, focusing on consultations with City staff from multiple divisions and other levels of government. This work will lead up to the Strategic Plan’s development and submission to City Council by the end of 2025.
Homelessness Solutions Service Plan (2021-2024)