Ontario pilots program to keep homeless patients from being discharged back into homelessness

The No Fixed Address program, piloted at London’s Victoria Hospital and University Hospital, helps patients who are homeless find housing and financial support. The program started in the summer of this year and helped 17 people so far. It’s being expanded into phase two, where a housing advocate will be hired to work with inpatient medical wards at two hospitals. It’s also getting contributions to help cover first and last month rent deposits, rent and utilities bills that can go into arrears during a hospital stay. The doctor in charge of the program heard from hospital staff that they were feeling moral distress about discharging people into homelessness. She also heard from local shelters that their facilities weren’t the right places for people to heal. The program received a federal investment of $223,000.