Background and Purpose of the Toolkit
This ‘toolkit and resource guide’ is intended to be a short, accessible guide for organizations wanting to help their tenants build long-term, stable tenancies. The toolkit provides an scan of tools used by organizations undertaking eviction prevention work — also known as housing retention or housing stabilization. This toolkit is based on the larger work, Holding On! Supporting Successful Tenancies for the Hard to House, which reviews twenty-seven organizations in nine Canadian cities involved with housing the homeless or those at heightened risk of homelessness. The report reviews homelessness in Canada and intervention models, provides case studies of five programs, and reviews programming and best practices in eviction prevention. The twenty-seven organizations varied in size and model of service delivery, from small housing organizations to the largest provincial housing authorities, and from those offering small-scale in-house supports to those providing intensive Housing First interventions.
The full report and this toolkit provides:
- information for understanding the nature of evictions,
- an overview of the costs of eviction,
- an operational definition of a ‘stable tenancy’,
- a catalogue of the tools currently in use, with examples and resources, and;
- some guidance on how to select tools, and undertake eviction prevention.
Who this Toolkit is For
The full report and this toolkit are intended to provide a foundation for organizations considering expanding their services to include eviction prevention for their tenants. It is intended for organizations with some experience housing people who have higher incidences of evictions. For those agencies already providing eviction prevention programming, this toolkit provides additional resources. The report on which this toolkit is based, provides case studies and further information for agencies building their knowledge base.