New voices, shared solutions: Refreshing Ottawa's 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan

Meet Kale and Kaite, co-chairs of Ottawa's Housing and Homelessness Leadership Table, who are leading a more coordinated, community-driven approach to housing and homelessness.

Five years into its plan to address Ottawa’s housing and homelessness crisis, the City is resetting its approach – bringing in new voices for a leadership table that will sharpen the focus on improving housing stability and support for people across the city. 

The refreshed 10-year plan will focus on stronger collaboration, strategic priorities and better outcomes for residents. 

The City’s Director of Housing and Homelessness Services, Kale Brown, is co-chair of the new 18-member Housing and Homelessness Leadership Table (HHLT) alongside Kaite Burkholder Harris, Executive Director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa.

With diverse representatives from Ottawa’s housing and homelessness and allied sectors, the Leadership Table is guiding a more coordinated, community-driven approach to housing and homelessness. 

"The world has changed in the past five years, and our approach needs to reflect that,” said Brown. "The City has a responsibility, as coordinator and convenor, to bring partners together across the housing and homelessness system. We can’t do this work alone. Success depends on our community partners and collaboration with other levels of government, working together to improve housing stability and outcomes for residents.”

Members of the Leadership Table have worked diligently on a plan that is co-designed, deeply collaborative and the best way to deliver on the City’s housing commitments. 

“Leadership is key to ending chronic homelessness,” said Burkholder Harris. “When we align our efforts and centre lived experience, we can deliver better outcomes. This plan, and the work of the Leadership Table and other community partners, has helped build that alignment and bring partners together in new ways.”

With City Council’s approval, the Leadership Table will also oversee implementation of the refreshed plan and help drive progress over the coming years.  

Quick facts about Ottawa’s 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan

• The Province of Ontario requires municipalities to maintain and update 10-year housing and homelessness plans. Plans are reevaluated every five years.
• Ottawa’s first plan launched in 2014 and was refreshed in 2020.
• Now at the five-year mark, the City is moving beyond a routine update to a more focused, bold and community-driven approach.

The refreshed plan sets out priorities and direction for annual workplans. This new model – where concrete targets are laid out in the annual workplans - will help the City and its partners respond to evolving community needs and funding opportunities in a more nimble way. 

With renewed leadership and clearer focus, the work is already building on progress to deliver better outcomes.  

Building on our progress – what’s underway

This work is already taking shape across the housing and homelessness system: 

• Working to end youth homelessness by 2030 through prevention and diversion.
• Establishing a coordinated, system-level outreach model that focuses on unsheltered homelessness, stronger community engagement and public space stewardship.
• Building on the success of the Shelter Diversion Pilot Program, reducing average shelter stays from 90 to 11 days.
• Investing in supportive housing, including projects like the BumbleBee Initiative that help scale new housing supply.
• Updating Ottawa’s Family Homelessness Strategy to help more families move from shelter to long-term housing.
• Better integrating health and housing to connect residents with the wraparound supports they need.
• Strengthening supports for veterans, newcomers and Indigenous peoples. 

This work is about preventing homelessness before it happens, reducing reliance on shelters and ensuring the system has the capacity to support varying housing needs in the community.

The City is also leveraging its tools to help get more homes – and more diversely affordable homes - built, including through the use of City-owned land and zoning changes. 

What other members of the Leadership Table are saying 

“The Leadership Table shows what’s possible when government and community come together in the spirit of true co-design, co-leadership and accountability to ensure that everyone has a home. The whole community has a stake in this, and progress happens when we’re able to share in the wins and the lessons.” 

Darren Graham, Youth Services Bureau

“Through the Leadership Table, organizations across the housing continuum are working together to better align efforts, leverage each other’s strengths, and support people at every stage of their housing journey – from homelessness to a stable, affordable place to call home. We recognize housing as a key social determinant of health, so while we work to build more homes, faster, we are also strengthening coordination and integrating housing and health to connect people to the supports they need, when they need them.” 

Danielle McGee, Ottawa Community Housing

“We are moving at the speed of trust – learning together, breaking down silos and having honest conversations about complex challenges. This is a community in crisis, and the Leadership Table creates space to better understand the urban Indigenous experience and build confidence in the decisions we’re making together.”

Marc Maracle, Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition

“We’re shifting our sector from managing emergency shelter responses to one of prevention and permanent housing solutions. Our primary focus will be on preventing homelessness before it occurs and ensuring that those who do find themselves experiencing homelessness are housed quickly and with the appropriate level of supports. This shift gives us a real opportunity to deliver better outcomes for all people and significantly reduce episodic and chronic homelessness in our city."

Stephen Bartolo, Shepherds of Good Hope 

What’s next? 

With Council’s go-ahead, the Leadership Table is set to begin work this spring on the annual workplan for 2026 to 2027. Stay tuned for updates from the Housing and Homelessness Leadership Table.   

You can also learn more about Ottawa’s refreshed 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan.