Sionito breaks ground on 158-unit building

By John Hamer.

As human beings, we fall into weekly and even daily routines.  Sometimes it’s difficult not to be swept up by the news cycle.  It’s easy to lose sight of the larger perspective or to appreciate what can be accomplished when we commit together to sustained effort over the course of years and decades.  I had occasion to reflect on this principle last Thursday, as I participated in a long anticipated groundbreaking ceremony. 
​
For many years I have volunteered my service as president of the Sionito group of charities, which provides affordable and subsidized housing here in Toronto, in many cases for individuals who would otherwise be at risk of being homeless.  The charity began half a century ago when members of the congregation rehabbed distressed apartments in the neighborhood of our old church, as a way to provide housing for refugees from Latin America.  Members of the newly housed community felt that we had a little piece of “Zion” — God’s peaceable, equitable kingdom, here in Toronto — and so they called the apartments, “the little Zion” (“Sionito” in Spanish). 

Over the years, the charity expanded to include three buildings with a total of 133 apartments in Toronto and added a sister charity, Zerin, which is developing more buildings in London, Ontario.  Unfortunately, the crisis of housing injustice is still with us and is, perhaps, more acute than ever. Housing justice is an issue of which everyone who lives in a city has long been aware.  And as housing has become ever less affordable, it is an issue that has now come to the attention of everyone in Canada.

Fortunately, decades of work have given us expertise, equity, and strong partnerships, allowing the charity to construct an all-new development.  The new building will include 158 apartments, more than doubling the good work we are currently able to provide. 

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Bryce Taylor, CEO of the Sionito Group of Charities and a member of the Gathering Place+ congregation, remarked, “all social support starts with the need for housing [...] We at Sionito fit into this societal support system by providing housing for seniors impoverished by mental health challenges at a time in their life when they are fighting just to maintain their independence and their activities of daily living. We will give them that and more in this building [...] this project shows how citizens can come together in this society of ours in Canada and citizens can make Canada the more civil society.”
​
The world needs community, and Sionito is a powerful example of what can be accomplished when people who share values work together to confront a global issue in their own neighborhood.