Dr. Andrew Boozary on Expanding Social Medicine Housing Model Dunn House

When Dr. Andrew Boozary helped launch Dunn House, Canada’s first social medicine housing initiative, he was led by a foundational desire for housing to be seen as synonymous with health. Now, with the proven success of the model in mind, he is setting his sites on a bigger goal.

By: Marielle Boutin

Since opening in 2024, residents of Dunn House, who are primarily made up of individuals experiencing homelessness and who regularly frequent emergency departments, visited an ER 52 per cent less and shortened their stays in hospitals by nearly 80 per cent.

With the aim of expanding the model and providing integrated health and housing support for those who need it most, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto recently announced plans for Dunn House Phase 2. The expansion project is part of Build Canada Homes, a new national initiative aimed at developing more affordable support-based housing.

Following a $21.6 million investment from the federal government and an additional $2.6 million in support from the Province of Ontario, the second phase will see 54 new units built in the Parkdale community. The rent for each unit will be subsidized based on household income, and all residents will have access to on-site health and social services support.

According to Dr. Boozary, who was instrumental in the localized success of Dunn House, the findings from the project’s initial launch will guide its next phase, which will expand its evaluation to include more patient-reported outcomes, experiences and measures of overall health.

“The next phase is about ensuring we capture the things that matter most to the people who are going to be living there,” says Dr. Boozary.

While the next phase will draw closely from the original model in terms of structure, a key difference in phase two will be its focus on older adults. Recent federal data shows a significant increase in seniors relying on shelters, having gone up nearly 50 per cent from 2021 to 2024.

“This continues to be the thrust of the work: to marry the data with lived experiences,” says Dr. Boozary. “We heard from many of our lived-experience council members about the need to better address the reality facing older adults who are homeless.”

Once the second phase is underway, Dunn House will be the largest prescribable housing model in Canada, and according to Dr. Boozary, will require intentional integration from all sectors who are prepared to apply a multi-solutions approach to address the homelessness crisis.

“Integration is so pivotal, especially for scale. It’s going to require a much more holistic way of delivering healthcare, embedding housing while understanding that the social care aspects are so central to the success of any housing program.”

This focus on comprehensive partnerships is central to the goal of eradicating homelessness, which Dr. Boozary says is not only critical, but entirely possible. He draws examples from around the world that support its viability, including Finland’s long‑term progress and Houston’s success in bending the curve over the past five to ten years.

“The fact that we’ve seen other jurisdictions move in this direction in a really meaningful way, I can’t accept that we wouldn’t. I think we know there is so much expertise across the country that I don’t believe we have much of an excuse. I also think we have too much privilege in the work that we’re doing to just throw our hands up and say, well, we’ve lost hope, or that this has become too wicked or too intractable a problem, and that all we can do is tinker at the margins.”

While the expansion of Dunn House represents progress, for Dr. Boozary, its achievements are deeply tied to the lives lost before its doors opened, losses that continue to drive his work.

“I think the more people I see in my clinic, and the reality that patients are waiting eight to ten years to access social housing, the more it becomes clear that there’s no sensationalism in calling homelessness a terminal condition, because many pass away before their number is called.”

Dr. Boozary is realistic about the scale of Dunn House and its expansion when put up against the homelessness crisis. 105 housing units won’t end the crisis, but he sees the program as vital proof that dignified, economically sound solutions can produce benefits that extend beyond housing alone.