Grant: Fellowship - PA - Research & Knowledge Translation on Urban Housing and Health

Access to shelters can be a matter of death or life for individuals experiencing homelessness or population at risk of becoming homeless. This population includes women fleeing domestic violence, runaway youth or even people in economic hardship among others. These people generally have many and varied needs to be addressed, and also face many barriers to return to their normal life, including exit homelessness. Providing quality basic services, including availability of counseling services, can play a major role in supporting the affected individuals. In perspective to improve the quality of services in Toronto shelters, the City of Toronto wants to test a New Shelter Services Model (NSSM) program that integrates a peer support approach into shelter-based services for people experiencing homelessness. Based on their own past shelter experience and their pathway to recovery, individuals will be trained and hired to provide counseling services and support in shelters. This peer support service aims at facilitating transition to stable housing and improving the well-being of shelter users. Based on the partnership agreement between the City of Toronto and MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, this study aims to evaluate rigorously the effects of this Peer Support approach on improving housing outcomes and recovery among homeless individuals. Hence, this research will contribute to the elaboration of evaluation design and elaboration, supporting data collection, and rigorous analysis. In addition, it will include particularly a gender-based analysis. We hypothesize that women, men, and non-binary people intersecting with diversity factors will experience peer support differently, and this may lead to different results. In sum, this study can lead to important evidence for a new avenue for shelter programs.