About US.

Trauma Helpline's mandate is to work toward zero unhoused people in Peterborough and the surrounding region by recognizing the needs of the most vulnerable people including those who are involved in a revolving door situation with the criminal justice system.

The inspiration is simple: provide the unhoused with the option of housing and be part of the healing process that allows them to move forward in a calming environment.

We recognize that it is possible to end homelessness.

The organization is built around the policy that housing is a human right, using a Housing First approach modelled on the national strategies of Norway and Finland which combine rapid, unconditional access to stable, housing with ongoing, person-centred support. 

Trauma Helpline adopted this ideology, coined by a Canadian Psychologist named Sam Tsemberis, who proposed that the best way to eradicate homelessness was to provide homes. The Housing First model strives to give the unhoused a home without any conditions.

These people are not required to get a job first, but housing is provided first. This philosophy comes from the idea that once people have housing, they will be able to seek the help they require to improve their lives.

Secondly, built on private land, the focus of the project will remain that each unit will be below the market-rent value in order to address affordability and sustainability and the units will be non-market housing options for the unhoused. The organization uses an off-grid system with solar panels to keep utility and operating costs low, and the cabins are meant to be used on a consistent, year-round basis rather than as temporary or seasonal shelter.

Furthermore, our mandate reflects Canada's own legal framework for housing: the National Housing Strategy Act (2019) recognizes housing as a fundamental human right, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission's Federal Housing Advocate has repeatedly called on the federal government to prioritize permanently affordable, non-market housing investment as the primary route to progressively realizing that right, particularly for disadvantaged groups including Veterans, Indigenous people, and people experiencing chronic homelessness.

Trauma Helpline's project is designed to align directly with that human rights-based approach.