After discovering that the same 100 individuals accounted for 4,500 trips to the ER at University Health Network (UHN), Dr. Andrew Boozary, a physician at UHN and director of the Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, sought to find a better way.

In October 2024, Canada’s first social medicine housing opened its doors at 90 Dunn Avenue. An intergovernmental initiative, the project aims to provide unhoused individuals access to not just stable housing, but also a comprehensive team of healthcare providers to reduce visits to emergency departments and hospital readmissions. Less than two years later, it has saved local hospitals $1.66 million.

It is extremely challenging for unhoused people with chronic health issues to manage their conditions, since a lack of a stable address can hinder them from accessing primary care and specialists. Complications from illnesses result in a vicious cycle between the street and the hospital, placing a financial strain on public services. For example, a month-long stay in a hospital costs the public healthcare system more than $60,000. 

According to Boozary, 48 of the 51 current tenants made 1,837 trips to the ER in the year before they moved in. Their stays in the hospital cost $2.1 million during those 12 months. 

The impact

After living in Dunn House, the residents reduced their hospital visits by 52 per cent and shortened the total length of their stay by 79 per cent. Altogether, this translates to $1.66 million in savings for local hospitals.  

One of the current residents, Matthew James Lihou, told the CBC that he was in and out of the hospital for years due to complications from his diabetes. Once he arrived at Dunn House, on-site medical workers helped to stabilize his condition. In his words, “[I] feel much better and my diabetes is still much better under control.”

Boozary and his colleagues are hoping to scale up their Dunn House model across the country, as the housing crisis continues to worsen. According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), since the pandemic, known homelessness has increased by 49.1 percent. There were 85,000 people experiencing homelessness in the province in 2025 alone. If left unaddressed, this number is projected to rise to over 177,000 in 2035.  

A work in progress

However, as promising as this data is, there is still plenty of room for improvement. On June 3, 2025, Toronto’s Housing Rights Advisory Committee held a meeting with Boozary and Valesa Faria, the executive director for Development Review at the City of Toronto. 

During this meeting, advocates and social workers pointed out that Dunn House’s eligibility requirements –– repeated visits to the ER –– exclude individuals who were recently discharged from the hospital, even if they meet the frequent visitor requirement. 

In addition, some unhoused individuals give up on going to the hospitals entirely and thus go unaccounted for. In response, Boozary said that Dunn House is expanding its admission criteria and number of collaborating partners to screen recently discharged patients more carefully.

The need for more projects like Dunn House is more apparent than ever, especially with the passing of Premier Doug Ford’s Bill 60, which removes vital protections for tenants and undermines Ontario’s housing justice system on November 24, 2025. Critics of the bill warn that the homelessness crisis will only worsen. 

According to Toronto Today, Diana Chan McNally, a social service worker and housing advocate, said in a press release that Bill 60 “will grow homelessness across Ontario” and called it the “Create Encampments Faster Act”.

Next steps

Based on their report, the AMO estimated that Ontario would need an investment of $11 billion in the next 10 years “to substantially expand deeply affordable and supportive housing.” Although the government has not made such a commitment, the success of Dunn House has prompted them to invest funding in a second project, Dunn House Phase 2. 

On January 13, 2026, Mayor Olivia Chow, along with the federal and provincial Housing Ministers, announced the construction of a second supportive housing unit in Parkdale. Like its predecessor, this second Dunn House will provide geared-to-income rent along with medical and social services. However, its target population will be at-risk seniors in the Parkdale neighbourhood.

Altogether, the federal and provincial governments are contributing over $21.6 million for this project. At the announcement of the second Dunn House, both Chow and Toronto Housing Minister Gregor Robertson praised the first Dunn House, with the latter saying that it is “critical to solving the housing crisis.”

This development demonstrates that the rapid expansion of supportive housing is possible as long as there is political will and financial support. Hopefully, Ontario will see many more Dunn Houses built in the future.