RENT is a program of East York East Toronto Family Resources (EYET). For over 25 years, EYET has worked to strengthen the quality of life for children and families. Today, we are a valued multi-service agency and a registered charity enriching the lives of those we serve and the communities and neighbourhoods in which our programs and services are based.

Based on our values of Accountability, Responsiveness, Inclusion, Innovation and Collaboration, every year, thousands of children and adults attend our child and family drop-ins, parenting education programs, child care centres, prenatal nutrition and education programs. Families and individuals turn to us for support to find and maintain housing.

By working in close collaboration with community partners, participants, clients, volunteers and members, we are able to quickly identify emerging community needs and respond with new, innovative and meaningful programs to fill the gaps.

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Our Housing Department strives to implement effective homelessness reduction strategies through direct service which is person-driven and accountable, and through sector support which promotes capacity, leadership and analysis of the systemic issues affecting homelessness and housing insecurity.

Some of the services and information resources offered by our Housing department are outlined below:

• East York Housing Help Centre: assists people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to find and keep housing, and provide assistance with rent arrears, first and last month's rent and utility assistance.

• Resources Exist for Networking and Training (RENT): builds the capacity of the Housing Help sector by facilitating the housing workers' network in which coordinated resource development is a priority.

• Landlordconnect.ca:  is an online vacancy list of affordable, private market units for housing workers to access for their clients, through which Landlordconnect supports landlords and housing workers in a public/private partnership to maintain housing stabilization for low income Toronto residents.

• Housing Help Association of Ontario (HHAO): Sponsored by EYET, HHAO is an organization of Housing Help service providers across the province which promote and build on housing help best practices.

• At HOME: EYET also participates on the Board of this community corporation, working to build affordable housing for single-women led families in East York.

In September 2000, ninety frontline housing workers from 80 organizations gathered for a networking meeting to discuss of an exploding homelessness crisis, witnessing increasing numbers of people homeless or at risk of homeless, recognizing there was no real training to address the work they did.

Housing workers agreed that the best way to share information, skills, knowledge, and best practices was to organize workshops and networking. East York East Toronto Family Resources became the lead forming Resources Exist for Networking and Training (RENT), and making the housing workers' ideas a reality.

What started as simply organizing monthly networking has now grown to monthly RENT workshops on specialized housing help skills, T.E.S.H.H., Training for Essential Skills in Housing Help, and a vast on-line environment to share information, resources and network to develop and implement best practices in homelessness reduction.

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www.housingworkers.ca is the hub of communication, programs and resources for housing workers in Toronto and beyond, offering the following benefits:

1. Training
• Training for Essential Skills for Housing Help (TESHH) - 12 Workshop Series
• Specialized and Emerging Issues Workshops
• Cross-Sectoral Networking Sessions between housing, income support, legal services, health, family services, and settlement sectors
• Training Videos available on-line and on DVD
• Onsite Presentations on Housing Help and maximize on-line resources
• Job Shadowing and Mentoring for Skills Development


2. Online Resource Materials
• Housing Network News: an online newspaper with provincial news
• Bi-weekly eBulletin: News and Resources from RENT and across the City
• Practical Resources: Useful information recommended by housing workers
• Postings of Other Trainings, Advocacy Campaigns
• Weekly Job Postings in the Housing Sector
• Searchable Database of members by work context, client population, language, and location


3. Online Discussion and Connection
• Online Discussion Area - to post questions and share information with mentors and colleagues
• Unique Online Workspaces - created as separate discussions for particular groups and projects in the housing sector who need to communicate, organize, and work together across distances


4. Networking
• Our staff participate various City directed and independent housing planning tables including:



- Rental Housing Advisory Board	- Immigrant and Refugee Housing Committee
- Housing Help Network	- Housing Help Services Network
- Rooming Housing Working Group	- Rooming House Networking group
- Rent Bank Steering Committee	- Rent Bank Operational Committee
-Housing Action Now	- Streets to Homes Case Conferences
- Housing Connections Partners	- Mental Health Commission Housing Project

Housing Help is primarily about two things: access and stabilization. However, these two goals are affected and effected by the social determinants of health, and Housing Help's intersectionality with other community service sectors.

The Social Determinants of Health

The globally recognized social determinants of health all interplay to affect a person's quality of life. They include:

Housing Help's intersectionality with other community service sectors emphasizes the collaborative nature of our work in the following ways:

1. Housing - subsidized and supportive housing providers, private landlords
2. Income Support - Provincial, Federal and Other Income Benefit
3. Employment and Training Centres and Opportunities
4. Legal Services - Community Legal Clinics, Tenant Advocacy Organizations
5. Health Sector- Public Health, Community Health Centres, Mental Health Programs
6. Family Services Sector
7. Settlement Services - for Immigrants and Refugees
   

For a more in-depth look at the sector, download the "What is Housing Help?" backgrounder here.

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Housing Help workers can be found in Housing Help Centres, Shelters, Drop-Ins, Outreach Programs, Supportive Housing providers, and multi-service organizations. Wherever they are located, they have six roles to fulfill in their work:

The community of Housing Help workers has also established the following as the core competencies necessary for our work:

Download a quick fact sheet that answers the question of "What a Housing Worker Can Do.."

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In addition to financial support of RENT through the City of Toronto, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration's federal Homelessness Partner Strategy , RENT collaborates with the City on various housing system planning tables to support sector wide dialogue and new initiatives which improve sector coordination, such as the Housing Help Resource Tool Kit, which resides on this website.

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