Toronto Tenant Support Program

The Toronto Tenant Support Program (TTSP) is one of several grant programs the City of Toronto provides for non-profit, community-based organizations to provide a variety of housing supports and homelessness services to residents. Projects are selected to receive grant funding from the City’s Housing Secretariat after a comprehensive review process using a standardized methodology to ensure all projects meet the defined service criteria for the funding program, known as the Service Delivery Requirements.

TTSP projects support tenants in private market rental housing through the following program objectives:

preservation of affordable rental housing for tenants in Toronto, in line with the objectives outlined in the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan;
enhancing tenant support programs to respond to current market conditions and to the impacts of legislative changes; and
building flexible and responsive programs that allow the City to adapt quickly to changing tenant support needs.

The TTSP program is made up of the following funding categories: Professional Legal Services; Organizing and Capacity Building; Information Services; and Research, Policy and Data Development Projects.

Professional Legal Services projects deliver professional legal services to support eligible Toronto tenants in disputing Above Guideline Increase (L5) and eviction matters (N12, N13), maintenance applications (T6) or other tenancy issues at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, Divisional Court or other administrative tribunal(s). This project type also supports tenants with legal concerns related to the Multi-Tenant (Rooming) Houses bylaw and Renovictions bylaw.

Organizing and Capacity Building projects provide general outreach and organizing supports in each quadrant of the City, to develop tenant associations and to work with tenant groups or tenant associations to expand awareness on tenant rights and responsibilities through:

Outreach and Organizing: These services will be provided on a regular and ongoing basis in the community to increase awareness on tenant rights and responsibilities and to build a network of tenant associations that can support tenants to resolve issues related to affordability and evictions.
Immediate Supports: Projects focused on helping a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association to organize, build capacity and to prepare for their dispute(s) at the Landlord and Tenant Board or other administrative tribunal, to educate tenants on dispute processes and other issues related to preserving affordability.

Information Services projects expand tenants’ knowledge and awareness of their rights and responsibilities through a variety of communication strategies and information services.

Research, Policy and Data Development Projects conduct research, collect data and report to the City on topic areas impacting the preservation of affordable rental housing in Toronto.

The following projects have been selected to deliver TTSP services for the funding term of April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028.

Organization	Category	Project Name
Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR)	Professional Legal Services	Legal supports to Preserve Tenancies and Affordable Housing
Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations (FMTA)	Organizing and Capacity Building	FMTA Outreach and Organizing Team
Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations (FMTA)	Information Services	FMTA Tenant Info Hub
Centre for Immigrant and Community Services (CICS)	Information Services	Holistic Information and Referral Strategy for Housing Support
Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR)	Research, Policy and Data Development Projects	Preserving Affordable Rental Housing in Toronto – A Community-Based Research Platform

If you are interested in learning more about the services offered, please contact the organizations above directly.

Professional Legal Services Service Delivery Requirements

All organizations must demonstrate the following:

Confirmed registration with the Law Society of Ontario as a civil society organization.
A minimum of 3 years’ of experience and expertise in the delivery of tenant supports and tenant issues related to evictions and affordability.
Complete assessments with a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association to identify their needs and to provide appropriate services or to make appropriate referrals that will support tenants with their case.
Deliver services 35 – 40 hours/week, including weekends and evenings and flexibility in location of operation to enhance engagement with a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association.
An equity and inclusion strategy: The City recognizes the barriers presented by discrimination and the disadvantages faced by equity-deserving groups and vulnerable populations. To address these barriers, applications must demonstrate the ability to implement projects that improve access and tenant supports for vulnerable populations and equity-deserving groups.
Identify the catchment area and location that the project will provide supports to in the City.

Legal Professional Services

In addition, organizations must:

Deliver services that will improve the preservation of affordable rental housing.
Have a tenant eligibility/screening process for a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association to access legal supports.
Accept client referrals from other organizations awarded funding from the Toronto Tenant Support Program Call for Applications, Councillor’s offices, City staff and other external organizations, with the tenant’s consent.
Have hired professional staff members (paralegals and/or lawyers) registered with the Law Society of Ontario to deliver the service(s).
Deliver in-person and online services – travelling to meet tenants in their housing units and/or buildings and are able to conduct services after hours and on weekends, if necessary.
Provide education and supports around rights/responsibilities, the Residential Tenancies Act and other relevant legislation pertaining to housing.
Have a strategy for building linkages and collaboration with other community supports including the private sector to advance a tenant’s/tenant groups progress.
Complete referrals to financial assistance programs, legal supports and education services and assistance to securing income supports, trusteeship or money management programs, where applicable.
Actively involve the tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association in planning, goal setting and decision making.
Provide and/or arrange professional language interpretation services to tenants and to provide tenants with the necessary accommodations, in compliance with the Accessibility of Ontarians Disability Act, 2005.
Identify cases that could be precedent-setting and to bring such cases to the attention of City staff.
Participate in City committees and working groups and to respond to questions from City staff, as requested.
Develop data, tracking and monitoring tools, ensuring informed consent from clients and adhering to all relevant privacy policies and legislation.
Report to the City on financial and service outcomes of the project.

Organizing and Capacity Building Service Delivery Requirements

All organizations must demonstrate and provide the following:

A minimum of 3 years’ experience and expertise in the delivery of tenant supports and tenant issues related to evictions and affordability.
A good understanding of service systems, tenant supports and navigating the Landlord and Tenant Board processes.
Complete assessments with a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association to identify their needs and to provide appropriate services and information or to make appropriate referrals that will support tenants with their case.
Deliver services 35 – 40 hours/week, including weekends and evenings and flexibility in location of operation to enhance engagement with a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association.
An equity and inclusion strategy: The City recognizes the barriers presented by discrimination and the disadvantages faced by equity-deserving groups and vulnerable populations. To address these barriers, applications must demonstrate the ability to implement projects that improve access and tenant supports for vulnerable populations and equity-deserving groups.

In addition, organizations must:

Ensure that each quadrant of the City is offered tenant outreach supports. Organizations can leverage community partnerships that will support this strategy.
Have a strategy to identify buildings where tenants may be at-risk of losing their tenancy in Toronto and to pro-actively support tenants in organizing and forming a tenant association.
Support tenant associations to formalize operations, governance structures, communication strategies, ongoing administrative support and to develop and support tenant leadership in communities.
Deliver in-person and online services – travelling to meet tenants in their housing units and/or buildings and able to conduct services after hours and on weekends, if necessary.
Identify affected buildings and applications that could be precedent-setting and complete referrals to the TTSP Professional Legal Services, as required.
Actively involve the tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association in planning, goal setting and decision making.
Provide and/or arrange professional language interpretation services to tenants and to provide tenants with the necessary accommodations, in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians Disability Act, 2005.
Identify cases that could be precedent-setting and to bring such cases to the attention of City staff.
Participate in City committees and working groups and to respond to questions from City staff, as requested.
Develop data, tracking and monitoring tools, ensuring informed consent from clients and adhering to all relevant privacy policies and legislation.
Work with City-approved programs on the continuous development of tenant associations, as required.
Report to the City on financial and service outcomes of the project.

Information Services Service Delivery Requirements

All organizations must demonstrate and provide the following:

A minimum of 3 years’ experience and expertise in the delivery of tenant supports and tenant issues related to evictions and affordability.
A good understanding of service systems, tenant supports and navigating the Landlord and Tenant Board processes.
Complete assessments with a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association to identify their needs and to provide appropriate services or to make appropriate referrals that will support tenants with their case.
Deliver services 35 – 40 hours/week, including weekends and evenings and flexibility in location of operation to enhance engagement with a tenant, tenant group and/or tenant association.
Provide responsive services that will improve access and supports to Toronto residents, including vulnerable and equity-deserving groups.
Have a strategy to provide information to tenants through each of the organization’s communication channels, specifying the service levels across the following categories: immediate response rate, same day response rate and response rate within 1 business day.
Provide an automated tracking system which provides statistical information with respect to the number of calls made to the telephone information service, including calls that are answered, calls that are abandoned before getting through the information line, length of time waiting before a phone call is returned, length of discussion on the information line, number of calls received when staff is not on duty.
Online services must be easily translated to languages most often used by City of Toronto tenants and accessible, in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians Disability Act, 2005.
An equity and inclusion strategy: The City recognizes the barriers presented by discrimination and the disadvantages faced by equity-deserving groups and vulnerable populations. To address these barriers, applications must demonstrate the ability to implement projects that improve access and tenant supports for vulnerable populations and equity-deserving groups.
Participate in City committees and working groups, and to respond to questions from City staff, as necessary.
All monitoring and tracking tools must adhere to all relevant privacy policies and legislation.
Report to the City on financial and service outcomes of the project.

Research, Policy and Data Development Projects Service Delivery Requirements

All organizations must demonstrate/provide:

A minimum of 3 years’ experience and expertise in research and policy development related to evictions and affordability, including developing research methodologies and conducting qualitative and quantitative assessments.
A good understanding of the current housing challenges, service systems and tenant supports offered in the City of Toronto.
Willingness to work with TTSP projects, other established partnerships and City initiatives to help gather information and analyze the data to help inform the research project.
An equity and inclusion strategy: The City recognizes the barriers presented by discrimination and the disadvantages faced by equity-deserving groups and vulnerable populations. To address these barriers, applications must demonstrate the ability to implement projects that improve access and tenant supports for vulnerable populations and equity-deserving groups.

In addition, organizations must:

Participate in City committees and working groups and to respond to questions from City staff, as requested.
Develop data, tracking and monitoring tools, ensuring informed consent from clients and adhering to all relevant privacy policies and legislation.
Advocate to the Province of recommendations to legislation impacting tenants, outside the City’s scope.