New housing units allow Milton Transitional Housing to offer bridge accommodation and support to two more struggling Milton families

Milton Transitional Housing (MTH) has just opened two new housing units in Milton. These new housing opportunities will provide bridge accommodation, support and counseling to two more families in our community experiencing a housing crisis as they work towards securing stable housing. “With the need in Milton so great, our volunteer team has worked very hard to increase MTH’s ability to help,” says MTH Board Chair Ruth Parkinson, adding that: “We believe that people struggling with housing security is not good for our town and addressing this issue contributes to the health of Milton.” Transitional housing has been identified by Halton Region’s Comprehensive Housing Strategy as a big part of the solution to the problem of housing crisis (outright homelessless, or the risk of homelessness). It is designed to be a bridge from the short-term emergency shelter system (often as little as 30 days in duration) to long-term affordable housing. With MTH, this “transitional” period can extend from four to 24 months depending upon circumstances. We offer housing at subsidized rental rates, along with requiring our participants to set goals and undertake counseling and training to help achieve their goal of housing independence. This supported housing model has proven to be very successful in Oakville, Burlington and Halton Hills – all communities offering transitional housing. Until MTH was established, Miltonians did not have access to transitional housing in our own community. The Milton Transitional Housing program became a reality in July 2011 with a volunteer board and start-up funding support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and agency of the Government of Ontario. MTH’s first participant was accepted into the program in February 2012, and with these two new units we have increased our capacity to help more people who are in housing crisis. MTH’s goal is to provide seven supported transitional housing units within five years.