Unity Project for Relief of Homelessness in London (Official) 3.56

The Unity Project provides emergency shelter and transitional housing accommodations to youth and adults age 18 and over, in a safe, secular, and home-like setting. The shelter is open and staffed 24 hours every day. We offer comfortable dorms for men, women and couples, and we provide a community of support where residents take responsibility for themselves, for each other, and for the functioning of the shelter. Front-line Support Staff support each resident's unique needs and personal growth with one-to-one counselling to establish, monitor and advance a personal action plan, and they facilitate processes of peer support and empowerment.

The Unity Project primarily provides basic needs (food, shelter and clothing), through programming that includes drop-in, crash bed, emergency shelter, phase-I transitional housing and phase-II transitional housing. Many residents move through this 5-stage UP model:

• drop-in casual access to a cup of coffee, a warm/dry place to sit and relax, a meal or snack if needed, phone, shower or staff support, advocacy and referrals, during set hours

• crash bed 12 beds for nightly stays accessed on a first-come-first-served basis with meals available

• emergency shelter residency 23 beds for short-term stays up to 42 days, and longer if required, where residents may remain on property during the day and required to contribute to a healthy community to maintain eligibility

• phase-I transitional housing, 7 beds available for rent in semi-private rooms including 5 for men and 2 for women, for 2-3 month stays where resident maintain casework and routines in transitioning from emergency shelter toward stability

• phase II transitional housing 8-10 men and women are accommodated for transition periods up to a year in our front building Unity House, where residents rent a private room with shared kitchen, bath, laundry, computer/internet and living space and may access community and staff support on self-initiated, as-needed basis.