Supportive Housing Working Group

The All Nations Health Partners (ANHP) Supportive Housing Working Group is a collaborative initiative under the Ontario Health Team model, uniting health, social, and community service organizations across the Kenora region.

Its mission is to address the pressing needs of individuals facing barriers to stable housing, by:

• optimizing existing resources
• advancing innovative solutions, and 
• fostering a sense of community belonging. 

The group plays a pivotal role in planning and implementing change initiatives that bridge gaps in supportive housing programs, reduce duplication, and promote reconciliation and partnership across sectors. 

Recent efforts have focused on developing a comprehensive inventory of supportive housing units, analyzing service offerings, ownership structures, and waitlist data, and integrating findings from a region-wide housing needs assessment survey. 

Further, the WG works towards improved awareness and access to supportive housing resources and align with other initiatives or tables within the ANHP OHT region, in order to foster a strong sense of community belonging. It does this through the following identified roles and goals:

1. To provide leadership, planning and action implementation of change initiatives that address gaps in supportive housing programs and supports.
2. Empower and align strategies that include the continuum of supportive housing strategies already underway within the Kenora region.
3. Mitigate the siloed approach and reduce duplication through strong collaboration and communication amongst the ANHP OHT Partner Table, working group membership and key stakeholders.
4. To demonstrate leadership in reconciliation and community partnerships.
5. To establish and maintain an up-to-date supportive housing inventory for the ANHP OHT geographic area. This list will include project updates on current housing projects, partnerships, and funding origins (ministry, private development, partnerships).
6. To establish analytics to measure the impact of the proposed changes on the current service delivery.
7. This group will develop a communication strategy that promotes positive messaging to the community regarding supportive housing and the good work that is taking place in our communities. This communication will also be leveraged in partnership with the local government to encourage private developers and landlords to collaborate with service providers.
8. Develop a unified and coherent ANHP OHT advocacy communication to all levels of government that will communicate the specific need in our area and be focused on long-term funding.