Residents in the Greater Toronto Area with spare rooms are being asked to rent out their space to refugees and asylum seekers.
Refugee Housing Canada, a home-sharing program pioneered by the home-sharing platform Happipad, is helping asylum seekers and refugees to Canada find places to live by matching them with members of the community who are willing and able to provide accommodation.
The Northpine Foundation, a charitable organization focused on supporting the successful assimilation of refugees in Canada, is funding Happipad to help house 1,000 refugees through the platform.
“In the ongoing situation, we found a unique opportunity not just to support refugees and asylum seekers, but also to bring an immediate solution that temporarily tackles the housing shortage and fosters an inclusive community to help create a genuine sense of welcome and belonging,” Cailan Libby, CEO at Happipad, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The program ensures hosts receive a fair rental rate, and conducts background checks to guarantee the safety of both the hosts and their tenants.
Refugees eligible for the program will be referred through verified local resettlement organizations only.
Hosts are not obligated to provide permanent housing and can choose to donate the rent they receive back to the program.
Currently, Toronto’s shelter system is overwhelmed by demand. Even with additional emergency funding from the federal government announced last month, the need for housing is dire.
READ MORE: Toronto to receive $97M from Ottawa to combat refugee housing crisis
Though hotels can provide a band-aid solution, housing refugees in such a manner is both expensive and unsustainable.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has already appealed to residents with capacity to consider taking in unhoused refugees, on top of her efforts to secure more funding from Ottawa to ease the crisis.
READ MORE: Toronto to open 250 shelter spaces for unhoused refugees
A 2017 study found there are about 2.2 million empty bedrooms in Toronto alone, and data from 2021 suggests that 29 per cent of singles and couples in Canada live in homes with three bedrooms or more.
For more information on Refugee Housing Canada, how to become a host, and other ways to help, visit https://refugeehousing.ca/.
