Toronto is in the grip of both a homelessness and a health care crisis. Shelters are regularly filled to capacity and often have to turn people away. At the same time, hospitals are overwhelmed, with average ER wait times ranging from nearly 10 hours at Humber River to almost 26 hours at Sunnybrook. And the two phenomena feed into each other—at University Health Network, the organization that owns many of Toronto’s hospitals, 100 unhoused patients accounted for more than 4,500 emergency department visits in a single year. In response, UHN opened Dunn House, Canada’s first social medicine housing project, at 90 Dunn Avenue earlier this month. The modular housing complex will provide permanent, affordable accommodations and wrap-around health care services to 51 of UHN’s most marginalized patients.
Here, Andrew Boozary, executive director of UHN’s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, discusses how this new model works, his response to the neighbourhood’s safety concerns, and how projects like this could help solve Canada’s housing and health care crises.
For all of our city coverage, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition.
