Toronto charity to open affordable housing for homeless women

A Toronto charity is set to open a new affordable and supportive housing initiative for women experiencing homelessness. 

St. Felix Centre, a non-profit that supports marginalized communities facing homelessness, will be opening Hope House in May 2025. The 31-unit building was funded by all three levels of government, with the building costing around $20 million.

Tarrah Seymour, an assistant manager with the centre, says the new home can help families for generations to come — and as a mother of two who has experienced homelessness, she's excited to see the impact it could make in the lives of unhoused women.

"It's in the name. It's going to give them the hope that they need," Seymour said.

"It's going to give them the support that they need and the family, maybe, they never really had."

Located at 25 Augusta Ave., behind St. Felix, the apartments will provide rent-geared-to-income long-term housing for women and children who will have access to support staff around the clock and services such as educational assistance and psychiatric care.

The project is one of the latest initiatives aimed at combatting the surge of homelessness in Toronto. City data shows there are about 12,000 people in the shelter system and 40 per cent of them are women.

According to the Women's National Housing and Homelessness Network, intimate partner or family violence is one of the main drivers of homelessness among women and girls.

Though spaces in Hope House are limited, the potential they carry is huge, said Brian Harris, executive director of St. Felix Centre.

"It's going to be so transformative," he said.

Harris says the path to stable housing could help mothers unite with their children who may have been taken away from them at birth because they were living in a shelter.

"That's very traumatic for new mothers. That's often a very motivating factor for women getting into housing is to be able to reconnect with their family … we're excited to be able to provide that opportunity," he said.

Advocates say initiatives like Hope House can be life-saving. 

City data shows there were 135 deaths of people experiencing homelessness in the first half of 2024 — 19 per cent of whom were women, and four per cent of whom were transgender.