Impact Report 2025-2026

This past year, Shepherds of Good Hope celebrated big accomplishments in positioning our organization as the leader in ending chronic homelessness in our city. We took strides towards ending homelessness through prevention and permanent solutions, which could not have been possible without our staff, volunteers, and community partners and members.

In 2025-2026, in partnership with the Alliance to End Homelessness, we launched our shelter diversion project. The goal of the project was to divert individuals experiencing homelessness early on to avoid the adverse health effects of chronic homelessness. In the 6-month pilot, we diverted 395 individuals with a 22% success rate, double our previous results. We reduced the average shelter stay for these individuals from 90 days to 11 days. Today, we continue with our diversion efforts and start to transform our shelter in the hopes that there will no longer be a need for long-term emergency shelter stays as everyone will have a place to call home.

2025-2026 was the year that Richcraft Hope Centre opened its doors at 216 Murray Street. This building is now home to 48 individuals and is the location of our 16-hour a day drop-in centre and kitchen, where our food services team serves 3 meals a day plus snacks. With the opening of Shepherds of Good Hope’s sixth supportive housing building, we now have a total of 339 supportive housing units across the city of Ottawa.

All our accomplishments would not have been made possible without our dedicated staff, selfless volunteers, likeminded community partners, and supportive community members. To all of you we thank you for making our work possible and moving one step closer to ending chronic homelessness in our city.