About
At Adsum, we believe that everyone has the right to safe, secure housing. We seek to lead change to end homelessness through housing, services and advocacy.
Apartments and condos are going up all around us in HRM, yet they are not affordable to most of the people we are privileged to meet. We continue to see signs of visible homelessness. We hear from people experiencing housing insecurity due to unaffordable rents and renovictions. Some, including senior women and folks with regular employment, tell us they are facing homelessness for the first time in their lives. We know that women’s homelessness and family homelessness are vastly underestimated and often hidden, and the lack of housing has implications for their safety. The need for housing support and eviction prevention has never been greater.
Our organization opened its doors in 1983 with an emergency shelter, Adsum House. Over the years we have expanded our services to safely include, and support gender diverse individuals and we have designed more appropriate options for families to prevent children from having to experience a stay in a shelter. In total, Adsum owns nine properties including the original shelter, multi unit residential buildings and condominiums. Additionally, we are operating two large properties on behalf of the provincial government; we are sheltering some folks in hotels; and we are renting apartments that are scattered throughout the HRM as an alternative to hotel rooms.
Some of the essential work that Adsum has underway includes:
Emergency shelter, meals, and social work support at Adsum House to 17 people each day.
Shelter meals and support services to 185 individuals staying at The Bridge at the site of a former hotel.
Support to more than 100 people, including children, who live in permanent affordable housing that is wholly owned by Adsum where rent is geared to income.
Eighteen families are making their homes at The Rose. We are currently building six more housing units at that location which is rented by the provincial government to support our shared goal of ending lengthy hotel stays.
Advocacy and one-time financial support to prevent evictions or support diversion from shelter to housing solutions. In a 12-month period, this program prevents hundreds of people from experiencing homelessness.
The provision of grocery cards, meals, holiday gifts, and programs and a variety of supports to several hundred individuals and families staying in apartments rented by Adsum, apartments rented in their own names, and in hotels throughout the HRM.
Offering meals and snacks to folks who knock on our doors or attend drop-in due to food insecurity.
While we keep all this going, we are continuing to acquire and build more affordable permanent housing solutions for women and families. We are renovating a fourplex in Halifax that we purchased late last year. We are also focused on developing Sunflower Two, 18 more affordable homes in Lakeside. We rent all our housing units at 30 percent of household income, making them truly affordable.
Adsum is also recognized for our advocacy which is primarily focused on the elimination of poverty, the societal conditions that create homelessness, and the devastating epidemic and impacts of intimate partner and gender-based violence. Our framework of practice is anti-oppressive, feminist, trauma-informed and based on principles of harm reduction.
We know that secure housing is the answer to our housing crisis. We ask that you help “everyone have a safe and secure home” with a gift so we may continue to offer emergency shelter, housing, programs, eviction prevention, advocacy, and vital services to those seeking our support.
