On Friday, February 9, 2024, leadership from the City of Toronto Shelter and Support Services and Indigenous partners in Toronto’s housing and homelessness sector gathered to celebrate and review five years of Meeting in the Middle. This important event marked five years since the co-creation of the Meeting in the Middle Engagement Strategy and Action Plan and partnerships with the Toronto Indigenous Community Advisory Board, the Aboriginal Labour Force Development Circle, and the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council.

No spoken audio, background music “Native American Flute and Acoustic Guitar 1”.

Video text:
Celebrating 5 Years 2018 – 2023 Meeting in the Middle

A lot has been accomplished over the past 5 years!
“If we want to serve the community in the best way, we need to ensure we work
together in a good way”

MITM was co-created to foster better relationships between the City of Toronto Shelter
and Support Services and Indigenous organizations.

“To meaningfully address Indigenous homelessness in Toronto by addressing the City
of Toronto’s Statement of Commitments to Indigenous Communities.”
Strengthening Our Relationships Through Ethical Space

“[A space which] offers a venue to step out of our allegiances, to detach from the cages
of our mental worlds and assume a position where human-to-human dialogue can
occur” – Elder Willie Ermine, Ethical Space.

We continue to honour our promise to gather annually in order to recommit to our
relationship and assess progress on implementation of Meeting in the Middle.

“Annually, we will gather to evaluate our independent and collective progress on
achieving our accountability statements.”

Our collaboration and partnerships still continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…two sides coming together….one side has a lot of work to do – education,
awareness, understanding to come back to the middle.”

“We’ve listened to each other…it was a meeting of the minds.”

“This will not be a straight path…but the opportunity is huge if we can get there.”

Together, we have strengthened capacity to meaningfully engage with Indigenous
organizations on policy and program development.

As of December 2023:
627 Indigenous households received the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit.

In 2022 and 2023:
167 units were tenanted by Indigenous people through Prioritized Access to Housing
and Supports.

In 2022 and 2023:
215 units were tenanted by Indigenous people through the Rapid Rehousing Initiative.

“I want to echo…words about more acknowledgement and recognition of the experience
and knowledge of our Indigenous-led shelter and housing providers. They’re on the
ground and have been doing this work for a long, long time.”

In April 2023 Native Child and Family Services of Toronto opened a 15 bed Indigenous
Youth Shelter.

Na-Me-Res is working in collaboration with TSSS to open a 75 bed Indigenous Men’s
Harm Reduction Shelter.

“As we learn to embrace our unique characteristics and acknowledge the constraints we
face, we must stand united in addressing the needs of the people we serve, always
remembering that relationship-building is an ongoing process.

Together we have…
Collaborated on the Street Needs Assessment and Homelessness Solutions Service
Plan.
&
Established a partnered subcommittee to ensure Coordinated Access is responsive to
organizations and people experiencing homelessness.

Responsiveness of funding and recruitment processes to fit the needs of Indigenous
organizations and communities has improved.

Financial investments in Indigenous housing and homelessness prevention has increased.

20% of all grant funding ($8.67 million annually) has been allocated to Aboriginal Labour
Force Development Circle for Indigenous-led projects.

Minimum target of matching 25% of all housing opportunities to Indigenous people
experiencing homelessness (RRHI and PATHS program).

20% of future infrastructure funding for new shelter developments will be allocated to
Indigenous shelter services.

Awareness and understanding of the Meeting in the Middle commitments and actions
has increased.

We have strengthened cultural learning and development for staff, with a focus on local
realities of Indigenous homelessness.

Land Acknowledgement signs have been added to all TSSS spaces.

“A lot of people put our good intentions into this. We all share those good intentions as a
group, so we want to keep passing it back and forth. Reminding ourselves of the good
intentions we have and working together and collaborating.”

Thank you to everyone for working together to strengthen our relationship and our
commitments to Meeting in the Middle.

Miigwech Miigwech Nia:wen Nia:wen Ay Ay Ay Ay Marsee Marsee Yaw^ko Yaw^ko
Qujannamiik Qujannamiik
Graphic Design and Video Creation: Emilee Bennett [email protected]