Our Story

HOTT was founded in 1987 by a committed group of downtown Toronto activists. HOTT’s management philosophy is centred around interacting with residents in an inclusive, respectful manner and seeking to offer residents meaningful opportunities within different levels of the organization. This includes participating in events, volunteering in fundraising initiatives and on HOTT committees. These initiatives offer residents the ability to grow and strengthen their skills in a safe environment in order to build confidence and empower themselves.

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Our organization is also committed to upholding high standards as landlords. We aim to ensure that all essential aspects of property management are consistently taken care of in a timely and professional manner. We believe it is critical that residents feel safe and secure in their homes and that having secure housing helps our residents to develop a sense of belonging and community.

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Building and maintaining solid relationships is HOTT’s strength. People are at the cornerstone of our organization. We are small, but we are fiercely committed to making a positive difference in people’s lives. Respecting and valuing the contributions of all individuals is one of the keys to our success.

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Throughout our experience as an alternative housing provider we have learned many lessons and have responded by making changes to the services we provide. HOTT began by providing only shared housing for individuals. Through feedback from residents and applicants we learned that private units were preferred. In response, we altered our organizational goals to adhere to the needs of the people we serve. All of the properties we acquired or developed after this shift in purpose were self contained units in order to best suit the needs of our residents.

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HOTT has developed and built two of our fourteen properties. The first development is a four-floor apartment complex and the second is a townhouse development. Both of these developments are situated in the east end of Toronto on residential streets. The goals of our development were to build and maintain quality, affordable housing in self-contained units to meet the diverse needs of the individuals and families that our organization serves. We believe these development projects have contributed genuine connections between our residents and within the community. We hope to participate in more community building projects in the future.

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