The Dream Team

There is no greater testament to the need for supportive housing than the stories of survivors who have lived and suffered without it.

In 1999, a unique experiment was born when one woman living with schizophrenia stood up and told her story at a meeting of the Boards for Mental Health Housing Services. Inspired by the power of her message, the group of housing advocates suggested she should continue to tell it where it could make a difference. Out of that idea came the Dream Team, a group of consumers and family members who for ten years have traveled the province telling their individual stories — about the difference supportive housing has made in their own lives — to more than 10,000 people, including politicians, schools, community groups, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Originally housed at the offices of Accommodation Information and Support (AIS), the Dream Team has been hosted and supported by Houselink since 2007 and many members of the Dream Team are also Houselink members.

Their stated mission is to demonstrate the life-altering benefits of supportive housing for people living with mental illness, many of whom have been homeless. In the process, the Dream Team fights against the stigma that is often associated with mental illness and in the process strives to eliminate NIMBYism.

These are some of their stories.