Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy is a federal program designed to reduce chronic homelessness across Canada.
Reaching Home provides financial support to urban, Indigenous, rural and remote communities to reduce and prevent homelessness. In the Yukon, both the Territorial Stream and Distinctions-Based Funding provide funding to meet community needs and advance key outcomes:
The Territorial Stream requires Coordinated Access in Whitehorse and supports housing-focused interventions across the Territory. As the Community Entity (CE), the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition leads the local funding process and overall system planning. The Safe at Home Society, sub-contracted by YAPC, delivers key components of system coordination and data collection, including support for the By-Name List and HIFIS. Our work is guided by the Community Advisory Board (CAB).
Funding supports housing-focused services, prevention and diversion, and client supports that strengthen access and contribute to community-wide homelessness outcomes. Funding priorities may vary by cycle.
Priority is given to projects that advance Reaching home outcomes and demonstrate strong alignment with Yukon’s coordinated, housing-focused homelessness response.
This includes projects that:
Specific priorities, eligibility, and available activities are outlined in each Call for Proposals. Please refer to Current and upcoming funding opportunities for the most up-to-date information.
By-Name List (BNL): A real-time list of individuals experiencing homelessness to ensure resources go to those most in need. Safe at Home is the Yukon coordinator of the By-Name List.
Community Advisory Board (CAB): A group of local representatives that sets priorities and coordinates efforts to address homelessness.
Community Entity (CE): The Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition administers Reaching Home Territorial Stream funding in the Yukon.
Community Homelessness Reports: Annual reports tracking local homelessness trends, challenges and progress made through Reaching Home-funded projects.
Coordinated Access: A system that streamlines access to housing and support services so people don’t have to tell their story multiple times.
HIFIS (Homeless Individuals and Families Information System): A shared database that helps service providers collaborate. Safe at Home is the Yukon administrator of HIFIS.
Point-in-Time Count:
A PiT Count is a community-level measure of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. It is a coordinated approach to gathering data, aiming to count or enumerate the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. The count also contributes to a national picture of homelessness. Typically, over 60 communities participate in this nationally coordinated initiative.
Funded by Reaching Home, the count is guided by the Community Advisory Board, administered by the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition, and implemented by the Safe at Home Society.
Community Homelessness Reports: Annual reports tracking local homelessness trends, challenges and progress made through Reaching Home-funded projects.
A Place to Be is a framework to end homelessness in the Yukon using local expertise, data, and approaches that have been successful in other jurisdictions.
The framework provides a clear picture of homelessness in the Yukon, identifies the changes needed across the system, estimates future supportive housing need, and describes what people need to stay housed.
No single organization or government can end homelessness. Reducing and ultimately ending homelessness requires a clear set of priorities, commitment from governments and service providers, and a way to track progress.
Homelessness is solvable. This is how we’ll solve it.
To show your support, sign the community endorsement below. Your endorsement signals to governments and partners that the community sees this as a shared priority.
For monthly data on the state of homelessness in Whitehorse, visit the Safe at Home website here
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness and Built for Zero initiatives offer support, tools, and a network to aid communities in their efforts to end homelessness. These initiatives promote data-driven strategies and collaboration to achieve measurable progress in reducing homelessness.
The Coordinated Access Guide provides a framework for establishing a streamlined approach to connecting people with housing resources efficiently. It supports communities in creating a more accessible and responsive housing system.
The Safe at Home website offers tools for individuals seeking housing support, as well as insights into community strategies, partnerships, and progress related to ending homelessness in the Yukon.
The CAB is the collaborative governance body responsible for aligning Yukon's housing and homelessness systems and overseeing implementation of both A Place to Be: Community Action to End Homelessness 2025–2030 and the federally required Reaching Home Community Plan 2024–2028.
It brings together First Nations governments, Yukon Government, municipal governments, people with lived experience, service providers, and the Community Entity at a single shared table. The CAB sets annual priorities and reduction targets, provides oversight of plan implementation, advances recommendations to governments, and is accountable for outcomes.
The CAB meets quarterly, with additional sub-committee meetings, workshops, and special sessions as needed. It fulfills its mandate through system leadership, intergovernmental alignment, and direction to sub-committees working across specific areas of the homelessness response.
The CAB is currently in a transition period. YAPC will be recruiting and orienting new members over the coming months.
CAB contact
Madeline Porter (She/Her) Community Action Plan & Governance Coordinator
867-332-5001
rhpo.madeline@yapc.ca
Reaching Home Administration
reachinghome@yapc.ca
(867) 332-8014