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Welcoming Arms helps address housing challenges through Way Forward

October 29, 2026   ·   0 Comments

Welcoming Arms, the ecumenical organization founded 20 years ago to help residents in need make ends meet, navigate often challenging systems, and to simply stave off hunger, is adding another service in their menu of community programs: helping clients address housing challenges.

The Aurora-based organization has broadened their Way Forward program thanks to funding received from the Federal Reaching Home Strategy via the United Way. The grant funding is to address the needs of those experiencing – or in imminent risk of – homelessness.

The program, which operates as part of the Coordinated Access System in York Region, works in two streams: keeping individuals housed and getting them housed if there are not currently, according to Welcoming Arms Executive Director Sally Freitas.

“We’ve already in six months fully housed somebody, we’ve avoided a couple of evictions, and part of our funding is we take a housing first approach,” Freitas explains. “That’s prioritizing housing with a sense that once people are housed, you can also start working on other concerns or issues they might be dealing with. Sometimes having the stability of being housed can help move that process along.

“We are offering a year of wraparound support. Once folks are housed and successfully moved into that phase, then we can continue to support them. I think it’s really vital in terms of keeping people housed, because getting folks housed is one thing, and keeping them housed is another set of skills”

Those are skills Brooklyn, who was recently brought on board as Welcoming Arms Housing Case Manager, brings to the table.

As she shapes the program going forward, Brooklyn says it’s very important to keep things client-centred, “meet people where they are at,” and put their heads together on goals clients want to work towards.

“What I really like about this program is we do really want to fill the gaps that we’ve noticed within the system,” she says. “I think it’s the value of building that rapport, taking tiny steps to work towards their goals, and then going to housing once they feel they trust me, they have gotten all their ducks in a row, essentially, to get there. It’s not just like, ‘we need to house you’ and that’s it; we can work on things and slowly get there.”

Many clients, she says, are on Ontario Works, which is not enough to live on. That can be a barrier to clients even approaching them for services as oftentimes that income simply can’t cover a room to rent.

Income is a huge focus of the initiative, along with helping clients interested in finding employment shape what that might look like, whether it is connecting them with an employment agency, filling out applications, and even just providing support to make that all-important first call.

“Income is a big one, just not having enough money,” says Brooklyn, noting the essential role government-issued identification can play in the smooth path forward. “I.D. for unhoused folks is a big one; either they get stolen or misplaced, and you need I.D. to do a lot of things, unfortunately. If you lose it, then you’re kind of starting from square one, having to get that birth certificate and working from there. Then, little things – if they’re still dealing with any addiction or mental health issues, how does that impact their daily living and what does that mean for housing? We want people to be set up for success, so if they’re still working through some mental health and addiction, then maybe focusing on getting them supports for that, as opposed to just jumping straight into housing where they might not be able to maintain it long term.”

That’s where Housing Readiness comes in. This initiative offers a year of wraparound support for clients once everything is in order to move into the housing phase.

“When you’ve been experiencing homelessness for X amount of time, you can lose those life skills like cooking, like cleaning, and how you maintain your home,” says Brooklyn. “The wraparound supports are very important: checking in on them, making sure they’re still okay, and if they’re falling behind in their rent or something like that, making sure that they feel comfortable at least reaching back out so that we can try to be proactive and maintain their housing before it reaches a point where they no longer could.

“I always say my goal is to work myself out of a job and when nobody needs the service anymore I know we’ve been successful, but there’s obviously definitely a need for it. I’ve noticed that maybe with a client for the first time they’re a little closed, maybe they don’t want to talk too much about anything. Then I see them the next week and maybe I’ll get a little bit more information. I even find small things like that a success because they went from not being comfortable talking to me at all to maybe three weeks in hearing everything that is going on.

“Long-term success [of this program] would be the amount of people we’ve housed, maybe the amount of evictions we’ve been able to prevent, how many people we’ve had to move from one spot to another, and how many referrals or connections to supports we were able to make.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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