Overview
What Is Reside?
Reside renovates vacant or under-utilized spaces into energy efficient affordable housing through partnerships with social enterprise contractors and local housing providers.
By creating employment opportunities and new units of deeply affordable housing with wraparound supports, Reside provides a tangible, targeted long-term solution to ending homelessness in Canada.
The Reside Process
01. Vacant property
We acquire vacant or under-utilized properties that require renovations in order to create new sustainable, affordable housing for people who are currently homeless or at risk of become homeless. Properties such as abandoned homes, heritage homes and churches or even derelict commercial buildings that could have represented a liability to the community are transformed, through the Reside program, into a community asset.
02. Social contractor
In addition to creating affordable housing, Reside projects provide real world, hands-on experience in the trades for people at risk of experiencing homelessness as they contribute to the renovation of these spaces through the training programs offered by our contracting partners. Our social enterprise contracting partners utilize a combination of training programs, connections to trade unions and employers as well as support resources customized for Reside trainees to ensure the cycle of poverty is truly broken for their participants.

03. Housing provider
We partner with local organizations who are already working on the front lines in their communities with families struggling to avoid homelessness. They know the most vulnerable people in their community by name.
Our housing provider partners help design Reside spaces to best meet the needs of these vulnerable people and then connect the people most in need of housing with the newly created units.
04. Move in
At the end of the process, the people who were homeless or were at risk of homelessness move into their new home!
The local housing providers help the tenants move in and get established in the home.
They also provide ongoing, wraparound supports to the tenants to ensure they not only survive, but thrive.
Completed Reside Homes
Vacant heritage church into home for adults with developmental disabilities
Vacant house into home for racialized youth who were experiencing homelessness
How you can help

1. Participate in a Community Build Day
Raising the Roof’s Community Build Days offer an a uniquely impactful team building opportunity. Your team will have the opportunity to deepen your team connection, gain practical skills, learn from people whose lives are being changed through the Reside program and create affordable housing for people at risk of homelessness!
Download our Community Build Day guide to learn more about this hands-on opportunity to have social impact in your community while strengthening your team.

2. Sponsor a Reside project
We have levels of sponsorship available for small businesses who would like to be part of creating local solutions for homelessness in their community or large corporations who want to step up and work with us to end homelessness in Canada.
If you would like to find out more information about custom sponsorship packages to meet your organizations needs and goals, please contact us below.
Learn more
3. Help with a property
Do you know of a vacant building in your community that would be appropriate for housing? Ideal properties are vacant schools, office buildings, churches, halls and residential properties that are close to transit, shopping, schools and other essential amenities. If you know of a vacant property that fits that description in your community, please contact us and we can evaluate the property to see if it is a good fit for Reside.
Also, if you are the owner of the property and are willing to put your vacant property to use to change lives of people in your community, we are able to accept donations of real estate. With property donations, Raising the Roof assumes development costs and as a registered charity, we are able to issue charitable tax receipts for the value of the property upon independent appraisal. Please contact us to learn more.
Contact us
4. Donate
Either on a one time, monthly or quarterly basis, your investment will change lives of people who are sleeping rough on the streets, facing eviction and are scared, or temporarily staying in a shelter, grateful for the bed but longing for a permanent home.
Click to join us in being part of the solution.
DonateWhat our partners
are saying
Our National
Sponsors
We couldn’t have achieved some important milestones without our amazing funders: Home Depot Foundation and RBC.

Contact us about Reside
To find out more about the Reside program, become a sponsor or participate in a Community Build Day with your team, please contact us.