In June of 2021, the University Health Network — a consortium of hospitals in downtown Toronto — announced that it was doing something health organizations rarely do: building homes for high-needs patients. Last October, the UHN, in partnership with the United Way Greater Toronto, opened Dunn House, a complex of 51 single-occupancy units financed by various levels of government, operated by the charity Fred Victor and sited on a hospital-owned parking lot in the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood. The units are being offered on a rent-geared-to-income basis, and the building itself was designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects, a blue chip firm that has been carving out a niche in supportive housing for unhoused people. (Full disclosure: MSA...
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Toronto’s University Health Network Takes on the Housing Crisis
By prescribing housing for the chronically unhoused, a hospital-led social medicine initiative is providing hope in Toronto –with help from architects local and international.