To: Jeff Neven, CEO of Indwell Community Homes

Demand that Indwell Provide Safe Housing

We are demanding that Indwell Community Homes address the safety issues in their buildings and we are demanding that governments hold Indwell accountable.

If housing is a human right, then safe housing should be a tenant right.  
 
From September 2018 to March 2023, Indwell has received almost $135 million in funding from all three levels of government. We are demanding that the federal, provincial and municipal governments pause all future funding on Indwell, until Indwell has shown that they provide safe housing.
 
We are also demanding that Indwell:
  1. Acknowledge publicly that they have had safety issues in their buildings for years,
  2. Create a plan, with specific timelines, to address safety issues in their buildings, including tenants being verbally and physically assaulted by other tenants, trespassers, prostitution, drug use, drug dealers and over-night security,
  3. Examine their tenant selection criteria, including revisiting their model of housing drug addicts with more vulnerable members of the population and explore offering abstinence only housing,
  4. Clearly define the types of supports they provide,
  5. Educate their staff and tenants about apartment unit takeovers, and provide strategies to address apartment unit takeovers and long-term guests staying beyond the two-week period,
  6. Provide data regarding how many murders, bodies left to decompose, physical assaults, overdoses and deaths due to overdoses they have had in their buildings, and
  7. Include all of these changes that Indwell is taking in writing on their website.  

Why is this important?

Indwell Community Homes is a Christian charity that provides affordable, supportive housing. They have 28 buildings in operation in Southern Ontario, with buildings in Hamilton, Mississauga, London, the Region of Waterloo, Haldimand-Norfolk, St. Thomas, Oxford County, and Chatham-Kent. They have 9 more buildings in the pre-development or development stages. Indwell houses over 1200 tenants. 
 
Indwell repeatedly fails to provide safe housing. Many tenants have complained about an absurd level of violence, including verbal and physical assaults by other Indwell tenants. In a March 2024 survey with 46 Indwell tenants, when asked if they feel safe living at Indwell, 67% replied: sometimes, rarely or never. Indwell keeps saying their buildings are safe and it is just a few disgruntled tenants. Thus they fail to address the safety issues in their buildings. 
 
Life at Indwell includes murders, assaults, bodies left to decompose for days and rampant drug use. For instance, in 2018, at Indwell’s Parkdale Landing in Hamilton, a long-term “guest” strangled and hog-tied his roommate. In January 2024, at the Oaks in Hamilton, one Indwell tenant violently assaulted another tenant. The man was left crippled with brain injuries and he died shortly afterwards. Other tenants are saying this was a drug deal gone bad. Also in January 2024, at their St. Thomas building, there was a compressed gas explosion. The man was charged with arson and possession of a firearm or ammunition contrary to his probation order. It was not reported if the man was an Indwell tenant or a long-term “guest”. When Indwell tenants complain to Indwell that they do not feel safe, Indwell fails to take action.
 
Tenants should not live in fear. If housing is a human right, then safe housing should be a tenant right.  

For more information contact: [email protected]

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