Do you have a spare bedroom, or even a comfy couch? Are you willing to host refugees in your home? We need your help. Become a Community Host!
We are facing a housing crisis as a community and as a city. Refugee claimants are some of the hardest hit, as they often arrive without money, friends or family.
Every day, we receive calls and visits from families with nowhere to sleep. City-run shelters are consistently over capacity, and often the only alternative is to sleep outside.
Refugee families have fled their homes; they have left war, violence, death threats and other risks to their lives to seek safety in Canada – only to find themselves with nowhere to go. This is the heartbreaking reality for far too many people.
The Community Host Program is an incredible opportunity to make an immediate – and potentially life-changing – difference in the life of a refugee. By providing a safe place to sleep, hosts help alleviate the stress of finding somewhere new to stay each night so that guests can focus on finding employment, securing long-term housing, and recuperating from their journey.
Responsibilities of a Community Host
How Community Hosts are Supported
Benefits of Being a Community Host
How to become a Community Host?
If you have extra space in your home and you are willing to offer it to a refugee or refugee family, apply to become a Community Host by filling out the application form and a member of the Romero House staff will be in touch to discuss the program in more detail:
Questions? Download the info sheet or contact us at communityhost@romerohouse.org
Don’t have extra space, but know people who do? Please spread the word about the Community Host Program. Share this page by email.
What Community Hosts are saying…
For me, this has been such an opening of my own heart space and my own knowledge of what is going on. It’s helped to give me a little bit of advocacy for people who don’t really understand what’s going on with refugee claimants. Very often people come under very difficult circumstances. Having a safe, secure, loving presence is the most important thing for them.
– Community Host, 2024
“We learn so much about culture and politics and friendship. We gained so much out of this experience and that’s something people should know. The benefits are so wonderful.”
– Community Host, 2021
What Community Guests are saying…
The Community Host Program gives us the possibility of feeling safe with respect, with families who care for us. This integration allows us to get to know Canada and other countries and cultures, and the possibility of learning from each other as well.
– Community Guest, 2024
Some refugees in Canada [don’t] have anybody – family or friends. This community [provides] new family, new friends, new house and new community. This community is very very important for refugees.
– Community Guest, 2024
I was so lonely, I was so nervous, I was so tired. I didn’t know anybody here. When I came to Romero House I got someone who was accepting, who was welcoming, who was so warm.
– Community Guest, 2024
Church opens rectory to house refugees
Stuart Mann · The Anglican
When the Rev. Gerlyn Henry heard about the housing crisis facing refugees in Toronto, She and her husband decided to become an “emergency host” providing a room for up to a week until the guest found a place in a shelter. Romero House arranged all the details for them. Find out more about this transformative experience. (Read more…)
Charity turns to Torontonians to house refugees as shelters fill up
Samantha Beattie · CBC News
Romero House says it needs more families to open their doors to newcomers this winter. (Read more…)
