Who We Are
Housing First (HF) is an evidence-based program that has been shown to promote housing stability, quality of life, and community functioning for chronically homeless persons with mental illness and addictions in a large-scale, multi-site trial in Canada, At Home / Chez Soi, as well as several previous studies conducted in the U.S. (Aubry, Nelson, & Tsemberis, 2015).
The Canadian Housing First Network – Community of Interest (CHFN-COI) assists communities across Canada to develop, evaluate, and improve Housing First (HF) programs based on the Pathways model tested, adapted, and shown to be effective in the At Home / Chez Soi Demonstration Project.
The CHFN-CoI (formerly the Ontario Housing First Regional Network Community of Interest (OHFRN-CoI)), consist of HF champions, HF programs across Canada, policy-makers planners, managers, service-providers, researchers, and persons with lived experience, including representatives from the housing, health, and justice sectors and Indigenous housing and support providers.
The CHFN is hosted by the CAEH and Evidence Exchange Network (EENet) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Community of Interest Leads
Steering Committee Members
Tim Aubry
University of Ottawa
Geoff Nelson
Wilfrid Laurier University
Angela Yip
EENet, CAMH
Wally Czech
Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH)
Lisa Medd
Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Ottawa
Kathryn Gibb
Services & Housing in the Province (SHIP), Ontario
Kelly Goz
City of Windsor/SW5, Ontario
Taylor Jordan
Ontario Native Women’s Association
Pio Giralico
CMHA Toronto, Ontario
Don Robinson
Manitoba
Doug Pawson
End Homelessness St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
Ty Silver
North End Community Health Centre, Halifax
Eric Macnaughton
University of British Columbia
Greg Bishop
Saint John Human Development Council, New Brunswick
Eric Latimer
Douglas Research Centre and McGill University, Quebec
Michelle Bilek
CAEH
Mission & Values
The CHFN-COI will be guided by the key values of social justice and equity, inclusion of lived experience and peer support, reconciliation, and empowerment and consumer choice.
Our Goals
Build local capacity for Housing First programs.
Promote high quality implementation of the Housing First model that includes both fidelity to and adaptation of the model.
Promote continuous program improvement through the provision of training, the development of Housing First program standards, the exploration of accreditation standards.
Advocate and influence public policy related to Housing First.
Resources & News
For many Housing First resources from the Canadian Housing First Community of Interest, please view here:
Join Us
Do you want to participate, learn more and become a member of the Canadian Housing First Network?
Please complete this form here: