Photo credit: Toronto Star
Plans are underway for Toronto’s University Health Network to treat homelessness as a health issue.
The Globe and Mail reports that research has shown that chronically unhoused people live half as long as the general population. However, housing is only sometimes considered as part of health care.
Toronto’s University Health Network aims to change that. UHN’s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine announced its first housing fellowship this week. The first recipients are Canadian lawyer and advocate Leilani Farha of The Shift, a housing initiative; British architect Paul Karakusevic of the firm Karakusevic Carson Architects, or KCA; and Canadian architect Omar Gandhi.
The fellows are expected to address the hospital’s facilities and policies and make broader policy recommendations.
Dr Andrew Boozy, the executive director of the Gattuso Centre said, “Homelessness is a health issue. In medicine, we’ve been addressing this with Band-Aid solutions. We need to find a different way to respond.”
The housing experts will collaborate with medical and research staff and UHN’s lived experience advisory council to advocate for more housing options and explore specific building projects.
Mr Karakusevic, whose highly regarded firm focuses on social housing and community buildings in London, said, “We know that housing is one of the biggest determinants of health, well-being, and opportunity.
“You might as well build it well. I think you can design beautiful places on a budget and deliver well-made housing that can really improve people’s experience.”
KCA is also working on two projects with Toronto Community Housing.
The fellowship is part of UHN’s larger housing strategy. In the summer, it will open its Social Medicine Housing Initiative, providing supportive housing for 51 people on a hospital site in the Parkdale neighborhood. Residents will receive access to primary and secondary medical care and supportive services.
Ms. Farha, the former UN rapporteur on the right to housing, said her focus will be on responding to homeless encampments.
Mr. Gandhi hopes to lend his technical skills and construction experience to building supportive housing.
