It’s been one year since we opened Dunn House — Canada’s first social medicine housing initiative. And this has been family over the past year.
The data is staggering. Emergency Department visits for the tenants have plunged by over 50%. And days spent in hospital have similarly plummeted by nearly 80%.
What started as a “radical” idea — turning a parking lot into 51 homes — became a place where people who were living inside and out of hospitals, shelters, or on the street could finally exhale.
But the real drive for change, I hope, is how human dignity and health economics are completely aligned in the stories we tell.
The first story is from @_VictoriaGibson at the Toronto Star — about Jason Miles, a man whose addiction and homelessness cost more than $260,000 through ER visits, shelters, and jail stays. Not because he wanted that path, but because there wasn’t another one.
The second is from @liamdevlincasey in the CBC, about our @UHN teams and community partners deciding to try something different and center those patients that been sidelined in the health system. The cost calculus is clear when it can be over $50k per month in hospital, $15k in provincial jail and $4k for supportive housing.
I believe both these stories show the cost of crisis — and the return on compassion.
It’s still early, and there’s a lot more to do across the province. But one year in, I’m certain of this more than ever:
housing is healthcare.
compassion saves lives.
and dignity has to be co-designed into the system — not left to chance.
Are you a woman who changed your name when you got married?
Congress is considering a bill that could make it much harder for you to vote.
Call your rep—this is not a drill. https://t.co/P7CcCnFTk1
Canadian intelligence officials say Canada needs to be on the lookout for campaigns aimed at destabilizing the country, this is why “conservatives” e.g. foreign funded accounts and domestic traitors are pushing the 51st propaganda and pretending Canada is “terrible” to live in. It’s an operation.
https://t.co/30F94oUOge
Thank you #PrimeMinister#JustinTrudeau. No govt is w/o errors but you guided us through #CERB & #FreedumbConvoy, gave middle-class tax cuts & programs to benefit working families w/$10 daycare & lifted so many kids out of poverty. History will be kinder than the present moment.
This motherfucker is trying to blackmail and bully a US ally into statehood.
Note to dumb fuck republicans: Canada is liberal. If Canada becomes a state you'll never win another election again.
In an extraordinary display of public support, heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers from all over Europe and Canada are posting in support of Ukraine in response to the Oval Office meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy, and Vance.
Before you vote for Doug Ford's conservatives, have a look at his laundry list of failures, scandals, and flat-out lies to the people of this province.
Then, share this with everyone you know...
Doug Ford is counting on historically low voter turnout tomorrow.
Prove him wrong. Everyone you come across tomorrow should be asked, "Have you voted yet?"