Lauren Flanagan retweetledi
It’s been one year since we opened Dunn House — Canada’s first social medicine housing initiative. And this has been family over the past year.
The data is staggering. Emergency Department visits for the tenants have plunged by over 50%. And days spent in hospital have similarly plummeted by nearly 80%.
What started as a “radical” idea — turning a parking lot into 51 homes — became a place where people who were living inside and out of hospitals, shelters, or on the street could finally exhale.
But the real drive for change, I hope, is how human dignity and health economics are completely aligned in the stories we tell.
The first story is from @_VictoriaGibson at the Toronto Star — about Jason Miles, a man whose addiction and homelessness cost more than $260,000 through ER visits, shelters, and jail stays. Not because he wanted that path, but because there wasn’t another one.
The second is from @liamdevlincasey in the CBC, about our @UHN teams and community partners deciding to try something different and center those patients that been sidelined in the health system. The cost calculus is clear when it can be over $50k per month in hospital, $15k in provincial jail and $4k for supportive housing.
I believe both these stories show the cost of crisis — and the return on compassion.
It’s still early, and there’s a lot more to do across the province. But one year in, I’m certain of this more than ever:
housing is healthcare.
compassion saves lives.
and dignity has to be co-designed into the system — not left to chance.
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