Welcome to TUHUnion.ca
The Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union
We are TUHU!
The primary mission of the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union is to:
Empower homeless and underhoused people to build unity and community, increase their personal and collective power, learn from and with one another, and come together to change the systems that create homelessness and oppress homeless and underhoused people.
What we adress
As people who experience homelessness and insecure housing,
we know what we need to improve our lives and end homelessness,
but we are rarely listened to and our opinions are not valued.
TUHU as a solution
The Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union helps us go from feeling powerless in the system to finding our power and collective voice.
We support people living in shelters, encampments, insecure rentals, and social housing to become leaders in their communities, and organize around issues that matter to them.
Our union builds unity, support, and community for homeless and housing insecure people. We come together, learn from one another, and build our capacity to make change.
We are Unique
We are Union.
We are a growing union with over 150 members from diverse communities, created and led by people who have experienced homelessness and insecure housing.
We refuse to be divided by those in power, and we will not rest until everyone's right to a home has been fulfilled.
We are Unique
We are not a social service.
TUHU is not a social service organization. Hundreds of millions are spent by the City’s Shelter and Housing Administration, charities, and outreach organizations, and concerned groups of citizens to provide meals, temporary emergency shelters, food banks, and other services to homeless people and precariously housed people.
TUHU does not need to replicate what is already being done.
We need to focus on what is NOT being done enough: organizing and empowering homeless and underhoused people to lead systemic change and end homelessness and secure dignified, affordable housing for all.
What Our Union Does
Our union supports an array of activities that align with our primary mission.
We might support people in an encampment to build a community bulletin board, post a schedule of services provided by government and non-profit organizations, and then lobby those service providers to tailor their services to better meet the encampment’s needs.
We might organize to disrupt city services or events to force politicians to listen to us and execute our demands.
We might organize a protest in a shelter to advocate for nutritious, dignified, food, instead of the bare minimum an organization can provide to satisfy their donors.
We might help peer harm reduction workers go on strike for pay equal to their colleagues who do not have lived experience.
We might organize self defense classes for gender-oppressed people living in encampments so that they can protect themselves against the physical and sexual violence that inevitably results from deep inequality and systemic marginalization.
We might hire lawyers to facilitate class action lawsuits for recovery of homeless people’s possessions that were callously disposed of, or to sue various levels of government for failure to take meaningful action around affordable housing or safety.
Origin
Our union was founded in May 2023, after a visit from the Lead organizer, Anthony Prince, of the National Union of the Homeless (NUH) in the United States. The NUH currently has over 20 union Locals in cities across the US fighting to uplift homeless voices and end homelessness. The Toronto underhoused and Homeless Union follows NUH’s organizing model while honoring Toronto’s unique history and context. At the present, we are the only NUH affiliated Union outside of the United States and we continue to be in touch with NUH and to share resources and strategies with them.
Structure
TUHU is made up of members across Toronto and has an Executive Board. As of January, 2025, we have over 150 members and counting. All Union Members sign a membership pledge agreeing to support and contribute to the union’s efforts and uphold certain standards of conduct. Members identify issues that matter to people experiencing homelessness and precarious housing in Toronto. Members also help organize and support union actions and discuss and vote on issues in all-members meetings, which are held twice per month in Regent Park.
TUHU Local
Once you became a member of TUHU, everyone is a member of TUHU Local.
<How do you commit?>
Monthly meeting and meal for all members
Vote on issues together
Bring forward concerns that matter to you
Network with other members with shared interests
Work on projects/campaigns
Join a chapter specific to your personal situation
TUHU Executive Committee
・Composed of members voted in by TUHU Local
・Additional monthly meeting
At present, the Executive Board is comprised of elected board members serving 6-month interim positions. The role of the Executive Board is to execute the will of the membership. The Executive Board may meet either with the union as a whole, or independently to strategize and plan actions. All Union Members can put themselves forward for election to positions on the board, which goes to a vote. However, we insist the majority of board members are people who have or are experiencing homelessness or who are underhoused living under threat of homelessness.
What are Chapters?
Our union also accommodates the creation of smaller organizing units called Chapters. Chapters may form within a particular encampment, shelter, or other community. Chapter organizing committees work to recruit and organize members within their respective communities around issues that matter to them. Chapters report regularly on their activities to the broader union and to the Executive Board. The Executive Board and the broader union in turn support and fosters Chapter activities.
Achievements
Created chapter in a large Toronto shelter. Successfully organized for private shower spaces, monthly meetings, and more
Created chapter in local encampment. Organized for successful communication with local services, and self-defense trainings
Organized the Housing For Whom? Campaign
Organized Refugee Chapter around accommodating special religious dietary needs in the local shelter hotel
Meet regularly with MPP & City Councillor offices on issues that matter to us
...and so much more!
How to be involved?
If would like to be part of our movement, send us an email at torontohomelessorganize@gmail.com for more information, come to our meeting every first Tuesday. (Pizza provided!)
Meeting
Every 1st Tuesday of the month
6pm
Location
40 Oak Street (Wheelchair accessible)
Contact
torontohomelessorganize@gmail.com
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