Ottawa is moving to put permanent supportive housing on Rideau Street, the downtown corridor that has become the most visible and politically charged front line of the city's homelessness crisis.

The city is seeking a partner to both develop and operate a new facility at 705 Rideau Street, a combined scope that signals a long-term commitment rather than a quick fix. The model being pursued is Housing First, an approach backed by decades of Canadian research, including the landmark At Home/Chez Soi study, which found that placing people with complex needs directly into stable housing with on-site mental health, addiction and case management services produces better outcomes than cycling them through shelters.

The need is acute. Ottawa's shelter system has been running above capacity for years, with families placed in hotels for months at a time and chronic homelessness climbing sharply. The city declared a housing and homelessness emergency in January 2020, just before COVID-19 hit, and conditions have worsened since: shelter space was cut to allow physical distancing during the pandemic, the fentanyl-driven toxic drug crisis intensified, and encampments spread across Centretown, Lowertown and along the Rideau River.

Chronic homelessness in Ottawa has more than doubled since the city declared an emergency

Source: NationGraph.

Rideau Street runs through Lowertown and Sandy Hill, home to the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter, the ByWard Market and one of the highest concentrations of visible homelessness in Eastern Ontario. Placing a major supportive housing facility there puts the project squarely in view of business owners, University of Ottawa students, long-term residents and advocates who have spent years in tense disagreement about how the city should respond. Any operator that takes on 705 Rideau will be working in one of the most scrutinized blocks in the city.

Ottawa holds the procurement pen for social and supportive housing under Ontario's Housing Services Act, even as it publicly feuds with both the federal and provincial governments over funding. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe's ongoing "Fairness for Ottawa" campaign has specifically cited homelessness costs as evidence the city is being shortchanged by senior levels of government.

The solicitation is posted on the MERX public tender platform. Who the city selects, and how quickly a facility can be built and staffed, will determine whether 705 Rideau becomes a model for scaling Housing First in Ottawa or another chapter in a long debate about what the city is willing to build and where.