About Us

London’s Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response began in 2022 as an urgent response to rising deaths and health risks among people experiencing homelessness in our community. It is a partnership between the City of London and organizations across the health, housing, and social services sectors who recognized that homelessness is not only a housing issue, but also a health and systems issue that requires a coordinated response. 

Today, the Response is a long-term partnership focused on building a stronger future for Londoners. We believe that housing is healthcare and a fundamental human right. The Response focuses on supporting people experiencing homelessness who face the most complex health and social needs, while strengthening coordination across the broader system that supports people at risk of homelessness.

These shared values form the foundation of the Response and guide how partners work together. 

The Response brings together representatives from across the health and homelessness sector, including outreach, shelter, housing, healthcare, mental health and addictions, education, business, development, emergency management, and community organizations, to improve how supports are coordinated across the system.

Why this work matters

Homelessness affects people in many different ways. It can be linked to health challenges, trauma, poverty, lack of affordable housing, and gaps in services.

No single organization can solve this alone.

The Response exists so partners can plan together, share information, coordinate services, and make decisions that strengthen the overall system rather than individual programs. By working together, partners can respond faster, reduce duplication, and help people access the right supports at the right time.

How the Response works

The Response was designed using a collaborative approach known as collective impact. This means partners work toward a shared vision, track progress together, coordinate their efforts, and communicate regularly. 

This approach allows members to contribute their expertise while aligning around common goals. It also helps ensure that services complement one another rather than operate in isolation.

In practice, this includes:

  • identifying system challenges and solutions together
  • sharing data, stories, and learning across organizations
  • coordinating services and housing pathways
  • supporting innovation and new approaches
  • communicating with partners and the community about progress

At its core, the Response is built on relationships. Partners consistently describe collaboration and communication as the main drivers of progress, helping break down silos and strengthen trust across the system. 

How this work began

The Whole of Community System Response began in 2022, when preventable deaths among people experiencing homelessness prompted urgent community action.

Three Health and Homelessness Summits brought together more than 200 leaders from over 70 organizations across healthcare, social services, housing, emergency services, government, business, and community organizations. Participants committed to working differently, focusing on collaboration, shared solutions, and stronger coordination across sectors.

Through these summits, partners reviewed local data, identified system challenges, and began designing a coordinated response built on shared values, cross sector collaboration, and meaningful involvement of people with lived and living experience.

The work that followed laid the foundation for today’s Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response.

Early history of the Response

The Health & Homeless Summits were convened collaboratively by the City of London, CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, London Health Sciences Centre, London Police Service, Middlesex-London Health Unit, Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, and St. Joseph’s Healthcare London.

In all, more than 200 individual leaders from all backgrounds and areas of expertise, representing more than 70 local organizations, came together over three summits in November 2022, December 2022, and January 2023, with a pledge to do things differently. They came together across a range of sectors – from community health and social services, institutional healthcare, education, emergency services, business and economic development, land and housing development, City of London staff, and staff from other levels of government – and agreed to:

  • Build on the great work already underway
  • Recognize the things that are not working as well
  • Collaborate and innovate on new cross-sector and multidisciplinary solutions
  • Speak in one voice to the funders who have the ability to resource a system
  • Response to this very real and dire crisis
  • And most importantly to engage, listen to and co-design a system solution with those who have lived and living experience as a foundational element of this important work

The work and progress included:

Summit one

The group confirmed their shared intention to work together and began to build new relationships, reviewed the health and homelessness data for our community, and learned about the local best practices and collaborative efforts that already exist and can be built on. Then, they set to work to identify all of the opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed with a new system solution and began to identify the core components of that potential system. In all, 20 priority needs and considerations were identified a cross four categories – Foundations and Governance; Service Delivery; System Resources; and Advocacy, Engagement & Communications.

Summit two

The group forged ahead with new relationships and continued to collaborate to focus on defining the specific requirements for the service delivery and system foundations identified in the first session. They were integrated intake and coordinated outreach; low barrier 24/7 spaces; increasing health, wellness and treatment options; a continuum of supportive housing; workforce development; data collection and measurement; policies and procedures; and standards of care.

Over the course of the first two sessions, through many generative, cross-sector discussions and breakout sessions, the need for coordinated system transformation was readily identified. This cross-sectoral group also identified five critical foundations needed to ensure successful system operation, including:

  • Workforce Development: Encompassing attraction, retention and engagement in a collaborative, shared strategy, including greater resources to hire, train and boost the wellbeing of frontline workers.
  • System Governance: Defining the governance, leadership and accountability structure for the system
  • Standards of Care: Establishing sector wide standards of care to improve consistency in approaches to outreach and intake, harm reduction, anti-racism and anti-oppression practices, low barrier spaces .
  • Shared Systems, Processes & Supports: Developing common policies, procedures, tools, and training to support the system and the delivery of consistent, high-quality care, and to support businesses and community members with tools and supports; additionally including the review of policies, procedures and bylaws to support the whole of community response.
  • Centralized Data & Measurement: Developing centralized data sources, impact measurements and new or enhanced assessment tools

Summit three

The group dove deep into a review of the draft system model, which was based on the collective input of all participants across the first two summits. They then broke into facilitated peer groups with fellow subject matter experts in specific sectors, to provide feedback and ask questions about the model, including working groups for: frontline leaders, operational leaders, organizational leaders, land and housing development leaders, business and economic development organizations, and funders and community partners.

Government advocacy

Leaders from across the Health & Homelessness movement have participated in advocacy days, meetings and briefings with individuals and groups at the provincial and federal government level including the Federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Federal Minister of Health, Federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, Federal Minister of Housing Diversity and Inclusion, local MPs Fragiskatos and Kayabaga, Premier Doug Ford, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Minister of Finance, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, and MPP Rob Flack.

Advocacy work continues with the Ontario Big City Mayors, led by Mayor Josh Morgan. This has also been a topic of discussion at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Respecting and listening to Indigenous colleagues

Indigenous partners play a vital leadership role in shaping how the system responds to and supports Indigenous community members experiencing homelessness.

The Response supports Indigenous-led approaches and ongoing learning across the system to improve cultural safety, respect, and collaboration.

How the Response continues to evolve

The Response has grown and adapted as partners have learned what works best to support people experiencing homelessness.

In its early years, the Response focused on building relationships, launching programs, and mobilizing resources quickly. As the work expanded, partners identified the need for clearer governance, roles, and coordination to support long term sustainability and stronger system alignment. 

The current structure reflects this next phase of the work. It is designed to strengthen collaboration across sectors while keeping the system responsive to community needs and frontline experience.

The Response will continue to evolve as partners learn, innovate, and work together to improve outcomes for Londoners.

Learn more about the governance model

Last modified:Monday, March 30, 2026