Welcome to TUHUnion.ca

The Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union

We are TUHU!

Our union is made up of people who are, or who have been, homeless, underhoused people, and allies committed to uplifting homeless voices. Our union fights to end homelessness and for dignified, accessible, affordable, housing for all. We speak out against harassment, criminalization, exploitation, and killing of homeless and underhoused people at the hands of oppressive authorities and systems. We work strategically for a seat at the table for homeless and underhoused people when decisions are being made that affect us.

The primary mission of the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union is to:

Empower homeless and underhoused people to build unity and community, increase their personal and collective power, learn from and with one another, and come together to change the systems that create homelessness and oppress homeless and underhoused people.

Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union Current Demands:

1.       We demand the City give people experiencing homelessness and precarious housing a seat at the table when decisions are made that affect us. As a union open to and led by people experiencing homelessness and precarious housing across Toronto, we demand the City work with us and similar organizations – when planning all major housing developments and transformations to the shelter system. This relationship would be like that of an employer and employee’s union, with the understanding that we will organize to disrupt city activities if we are not listened to. We further demand the City hold fully accessible meetings in local encampments, shelters, service hubs, and low income/social housing during consultations about shelter and housing proposals.

2.       We demand an immediate moratorium on TCHC housing evictions, encampment clearings, and service restrictions from hotel programs and congregate shelters. The City has declared homelessness a state of emergency yet continues to evict TCHC renters onto the streets. People living in encampments exist under the constant threat of eviction, while staff at congregant shelters and hotel programs can evict residents through “service restrictions” that are often arbitrary with no path for appeals. In a city where our shelters are at capacity and affordable, accessible, dignified housing is virtually non-existent, these evictions only exacerbate the housing crisis and compound the harm to homeless and underhoused people.

3.       We demand the City create and administer rent subsidies for presently unhoused people. The City claims it can’t afford rent subsidies, but subsidizing someone in an apartment is 1/8th to 1/16th the cost of keeping them in a shelter bed. Subsidizing rents could save millions of dollars and hundreds of lives. We demand the City do what is morally and financially responsible and immediately offer subsidies to those of us living and dying on Toronto’s streets. 

4.       We demand the City amend its affordable housing definition to specify all units must be fully accessible for people with disabilities and built to standards of Universal Design. Disabled people are overrepresented in the homeless population. Many wait years for someone else to die for an affordable, accessible unit to open up, yet only a tiny percentage of affordable units are required to be even semi-accessible. We demand the City invest to make current affordable housing fully accessible and guarantee new developments meet this standard. The City must consult disabled communities to ensure affordable units meet their needs, and publish the number of affordable, fully wheelchair accessible units available.

5.       We demand the City enforce its own bylaw and RentSafeTO standards that affordable units are safe, clean, and pest free. Presently, ‘affordable’ is often code for neglected, unsafe, and infested. We demand that the city increase RentSafeTO inspections and inspectors in affordable units. To mitigate conflicts of interest, City inspectors inspecting City properties like TCHC must be accompanied by representatives from tenant unions or organizations like ours who can document and follow through on concerns and organize to disrupt if standards are not upheld.

How Our Union Was Founded

Our union was founded in May 2023, after a visit from the Lead organizer, Anthony Prince, of the National Union of the Homeless (NUH) in the United States. The NUH currently has over 20 union Locals in cities across the US fighting to uplift homeless voices and end homelessness. The Toronto underhoused and Homeless Union follows NUH’s organizing model while honoring Toronto’s unique history and context. At the present, we are the only NUH affiliated Union outside of the United States and we continue to be in touch with NUH and to share resources and strategies with them.

How Our Union Is Structured and Run

TUHU is made up of members across Toronto and has an Executive Board. As of November, 2023 we have over 120 members and counting. All Union Members sign a membership pledge agreeing to support and contribute to the union’s efforts and uphold certain standards of conduct. Members identify issues that matter to people experiencing homelessness and precarious housing in Toronto. Members also help organize and support union actions and discuss and vote on issues in all-members meetings, which are held twice per month in Regent Park.

At present, the Executive Board is comprised of elected board members serving 6-month interim positions. The role of the Executive Board is to execute the will of the membership. The Executive Board may meet either with the union as a whole, or independently to strategize and plan actions. All Union Members can put themselves forward for election to positions on the board, which goes to a vote. However, we insist the majority of board members are people who have or are experiencing homelessness or who are underhoused living under threat of homelessness.

Our union also accommodates the creation of smaller organizing units called Chapters. Chapters may form within a particular encampment, shelter, or other community. Chapter organizing committees work to recruit and organize members within their respective communities around issues that matter to them. Chapters report regularly on their activities to the broader union and to the Executive Board. The Executive Board and the broader union in turn support and fosters Chapter activities.

What Our Union Does

Our union supports an array of activities that align with our primary mission.

-          We might support people in an encampment to build a community bulletin board, post a schedule of services provided by government and non-profit organizations, and then lobby those service providers to tailor their services to better meet the encampment’s needs.

_ We might organize to disrupt city services or events to force politicians to listen to us and execute our demands.

-          We might organize a protest in a shelter to advocate for nutritious, dignified, food, instead of the bare minimum an organization can provide to satisfy their donors.

-          We might help peer harm reduction workers go on strike for pay equal to their colleagues who do not have lived experience.

-          We might organize self defense classes for gender-oppressed people living in encampments so that they can protect themselves against the physical and sexual violence that inevitably results from deep inequality and systemic marginalization.

-          We might hire lawyers to facilitate class action lawsuits for recovery of homeless people’s possessions that were callously disposed of, or to sue various levels of government for failure to take meaningful action around affordable housing or safety.

We Are Not a Social Service

TUHU is not a social service organization. Hundreds of millions are spent by the City’s Shelter and Housing Administration, charities, and outreach organizations, and concerned groups of citizens to provide meals, temporary emergency shelters, food banks, and other services to homeless people and precariously housed people. TUHU does not need to replicate what is already being done. We need to focus on what is NOT being done enough: organizing and empowering homeless and underhoused people to lead systemic change and end homelessness and secure dignified, affordable housing for all.

How To Get Involved

If you would like to be part of our movement send us an email at torontohomelessorganize@gmail.com for more information or, come to our New Members Meet and Greet on January 16th at 6PM at 40 Oak Street.