Apply for Housing
Housing Services helps low to moderate income households with housing that is affordable and meets their needs.
Housing Services applicant portal
The Housing Services applicant portal makes it easy to apply for housing online. With the portal, you can:
- Enter your information and attach documents
- Receive email updates about your application
- Update your contact information if it changes
- Track the status of your application
Create an account
If you have already applied for housing, DO NOT create an account. You must email Housing Services for access to your file.
To get started, create an account for the Housing Services Applicant Portal. You will need:
- A valid email address and Internet access
- Approximately 30 minutes to complete the application. Your application automatically saves so you can come back and complete it later.
- Identification and income documents. The portal accepts PDF, JPEG, JPG, BMP, PNG and GIF formats.
Your username is your email address. You can reset your password using your email.
For the best experience, use a desktop or laptop computer.
Your application
After completing your application, you will receive a confirmation email.
Housing Services will review your application and contact you if any information is missing. Reviews may take up to eight weeks.
All communication about your application will be sent by email from Niagara Region. Check your junk mail folder to ensure you don't miss important messages.
When you log into the portal, you will see if your application is incomplete, active or cancelled. You cannot see your place on the wait list.
Eligibility
To apply for housing, applicants must:
- Declare all household income
- Not owe rent or other fees to a former community housing provider
- Be able to live independently, with or without support services
- Have one member of the household that is 16 years of age or older
All members of the household must:
- Be Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada or refugee claimants
- Not be convicted of an offence related to rent-geared-to-income assistance in the last two years
- Not have a removal order under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to leave Canada
Contact
- For questions or technical difficulties
- To update your email address
- To send documents not uploaded during the application process
- To set up your portal account if you're already on the wait list
Forms to support your application
Request forms
If you need any of the following forms, call 905-980-6000.
- Request for special priority status: For a person being abused by someone they live with or have lived with in the past three month, or a person experiencing human trafficking
- Request for urgent status: For a person with physical limitations and significantly compromised health because they need to climb stairs in their current residence
- Request for an additional bedroom
- Request for an accessible unit
Homeless status referral
If you're experiencing homelessness and working with an organization in Niagara, including Indigenous organizations, to find housing, ask for a homeless status referral from the organization you're working with.
Food resources
Find food banks, meal programs and emergency food resources in Niagara.
Document checklist
You will be required to include some of these documents with your application. Do not submit original documents.
Acceptable documents for proof of status in Canada
- Canadian birth certificate
- Canadian citizenship document, 8.5 x 11 paper form (both sides)
- Permanent resident card (both sides)
- Proof of application for permanent residency status
- Record of landing
- Convention refugee documentation
- Refugee claimant form
- Valid Canadian Passport
- Status card issued by Indigenous Services Canada
Acceptable documents for proof of income
For each household member 16 years of age or older, you will need:
- Proof of all sources of income and the amount
- Proof of full-time attendance, if in school
Types of housing - info for applicants
Community Housing is not emergency housing and cannot house people immediately, no matter what the reason is for the housing difficulty. If you need emergency housing, call 211 for information about emergency shelters.
- Co-operative housing
Co-operative housing is run by the people that live there and residents are expected to take part in the operation of their co-op.
You can do this by serving on the board of directors, joining a committee or helping in the maintenance of the property.Co-ops are a mix of market rent and rent-geared-to-income units.Some co-ops have pet restrictions.- Non-profit housing
Non-profit housing corporations are managed by a board of directors which can be made up of municipal councillors, interested community members and / or tenants.
The communities are a mix of market rent and rent-geared-to-income units.
Some non-profit communities have tenant associations that help the board of directors manage the residence.
- Public housing
The majority of public housing units are rent-geared-to-income.
Public housing units also include a small number of mixed income communities, including affordable and market rents.
- Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance Programs
Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance Programs are agreements where households with lower incomes can receive a subsidy towards their rent for units rented with private landlords.
Households pay a portion of their rent (according to the program they are funded by) and the remainder is paid as a subsidy to the landlord by Housing Services. This helps pay the difference up to the agreed market rent for the unit.
Depending on the program, the household may receive a subsidy directly from Housing Services and will be responsible to pay the full market rent to the landlord.
Applicants cannot apply directly to the Housing Allowance Program. Applicants on the wait list will be contacted by Housing Services and offered a subsidy under the program, according to guidelines and as funding and spaces become available.
Recipients of the Housing Allowance Program must:
- Notify Housing Services when anyone plans to move in or out of the household
- Maintain an active application on the wait list
- Non-profit housing