Housing Quarterly 

Fall 2024

This quarter, in recognition of National Housing Day, we focus on the ongoing housing challenges facing our community and PARC’s housing vision for the future. We are also excited to welcome new initiatives like the Social Medicine Housing program at 90 Dunn Avenue to the neighbourhood, highlighting the vital link between housing and health.

National Housing Day 

November marks National Housing Day (November 22), a critical reminder of the impact housing has on individual well-being, and just how many people in our city currently face housing insecurity. PARC works directly with members experiencing housing challenges, and continues to advocate for more affordable, supportive housing for all. 

Housing Vision 

Recognizing the incredible need for supportive housing in our community, PARC recently completed a rigorous visioning exercise to explore potential changes to the properties we own or operate on Queen Street West between Beatty and Dowling. Over the next 10 years, the resulting plan proposes: 

• To create over 180 net new supportive housing units over the next ten years and renew almost 100 more 
• To significantly expand community space 
• To ensure that all current residents continue to have stable housing throughout the development period. 

These are ambitious goals, but we know that with the sustained support of the community, we can help to make a long-term difference in the lives of hundreds of people experiencing housing insecurity. 

Read more about our plan here.  

11 Brock

PARC is also pleased to share that our supportive housing portfolio is growing: we have been selected as the operator of a new building at 11 Brock Street which will introduce over 40 new supportive housing units to our neighbourhood in late 2025. Read more here.

Social Medicine Housing – 90 Dunn 

We were delighted to welcome the Social Medicine Housing Initiative at 90 Dunn Avenue to Parkdale earlier this fall. The new initiative is a collaboration between the University Health Network’s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, the City of Toronto, United Way Greater Toronto and Fred Victor that provides safe, permanent, accessible and affordable housing for 51 individuals who are unhoused and frequently admitted to the hospital through the emergency department. This program recognizes the intrinsic link between housing and health and is a welcome addition to the Parkdale neighbourhood. Learn more here.

Accessing City Services 

As the weather gets colder, we are receiving more questions about the well-being of individual community members. While we cannot provide specific information about anyone accessing PARC services, we are working hard to support the unique needs of our members to the best of our ability. However, community well-being is a shared responsibility, and we invite all of our neighbours to take part in supporting one another. 

 The Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS) recently launched and provides free, confidential, in-person mental health supports city-wide. The service provides a non-police-led, community-based and trauma-informed response to mental health crisis calls and wellness checks. If you are concerned about someone’s well-being, we recommend engaging TCCS by calling 2-1-1 or 9-1-1.

Information and feedback

We engage with our community in many ways, if you would like to receive more information or send us email, we have the following options: 

We update our website (parc.on.ca) on a regular basis and each ‘Quarterly’ will be available at:
https://parc.on.ca/parc-housing  

You can subscribe to our monthly E-newsletter with news, events and updates from PARC at:
https://parc.on.ca/our-community/parc-e-news  

Questions or comments, please email info@parc.on.ca – this inbox is monitored regularly.