Cabbagetown mansion being repurposed as affordable housing for unhoused Indigenous men

In the summer, Toronto’s Native Men’s Residence announced plans to build 29 units of affordable housing for Indigenous men experiencing homelessness across two projects in the city.

The first project broke ground last month at an erstwhile Victorian mansion on Carlton Street, built in 1877.

“As we know, Indigenous homelessness in Toronto is overrepresented. So this is going to be affordable housing for nine of our clients when this housing is ready and we’re able to select tenants and I can’t wait until it gets operational,” says Steve Teekens, executive director of Native Men’s Residence (Na-Me-Res).

The mansion was repurposed into office space about 30 years ago and is being converted back into a residential building by MOD Developments. It will house nine self-contained bachelor and one-bedroom units.

“218 Carlton is a project that is being done in conjunction with a development that we are building right now, a condominium on Charles Street East,” explains CEO Gary Switzer. “And what typically happens is the city will look for a public benefit in conjunction with a rezoning. On this project, what I think was identified as a major objective was to deal with the homelessness issue.”

Switzer says instead of writing a cheque, they wanted to do something more substantial. They chose to create new housing instead of renovating an existing building and chose the heritage property for a number of crucial reasons.

“There’s services nearby, there’s schools nearby, there’s shopping, there’s transit and social services. So I think it’s very important that people are integrated into the community and not isolated,” he says. “We’ve also been big believers in heritage in all our projects. This was like an added bonus because the other aspect of heritage is the sustainability. You’re not demolishing and then going through [a rebuild]. To actually take a building like this and convert it into a use that is really needed — it ticks all the boxes.”

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Once the project is finished, the building will be given over to the City of Toronto, which will then lease it to Native Men’s Residence. The community organization won a call for proposals from the city for Indigenous housing providers.

“In the call for proposals they wanted us to demonstrate that we have a track record of offering affordable housing and offering supports to the clients that live in that housing,” explains Teekens. “So we built on our success and ability to already operate affordable housing for Indigenous people in Toronto in the existing Na-Me-Res affordable housing units.”

Na-Me-Res and MOD Developments have been collaborating on the designs for the units and what will best serve the men who will eventually call the building home.

Teekens says once they move in, Na-Me-Res will will also provide a number of supports to the tenants to ensure they settle in to the community.

“When someone gets housed, we assign them a follow up or aftercare worker, and their responsibility is to follow up with the individuals in their housing units, make sure that they’re doing okay, that they’re adjusting well to the new neighbourhood that they’re in,” says Teekens. “They might bring them around the local neighbourhood and help them access support services that might be of help to them when the worker isn’t available for them. And they’ll just enable them to live more independently and overcome any barriers that may impede their successful tenancy.”

Construction is expected to be completed in early 2024.