What We Do
Kehilla Residential Programme (Kehilla) was established in 1982 as the UJA Federation’s community housing agency.
Kehilla’s mandate is to identify and champion affordable housing initiatives responsive to the needs of the Jewish community in the Greater Toronto Area.
We implement this through education, awareness, project sponsorship, development consultation, and research.
Kehilla operates a Rental Assistance Program (RAP) that provides up to $400 per month to assist households to better afford their housing.
Kehilla partners with developers to access city mandated affordable housing units and integrate low-rent and inclusive housing with RAP funding into rental and condominium developments.
We work to initiate policy changes with government to allow for more affordable housing.
No one should have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table.
Hear from those touched by Kehilla
Creating community through affordable housing.
Orit, a domestic abuse victim, worked three jobs to pay her rent. Every two years she was forced to move to a new rental home and had to restart her life each time. She struggled to give her children a sense of home and stability with such a tumultuous situation.
Kehilla works to changes lives. Our first priority is to the most vulnerable, addressing their housing needs and connecting them to the Jewish community to improve their quality of life and well being. We celebrate that Orit, like others participating in our program, now feels safe, comfortable, and part of a community which cares for her.
“I do not just survive any more, but thrive, and wholeheartedly work as an educator and interpreter within the large, extended family to whom I definitely belong: the Jewish Community.”
Donors who care about community.
Our donors come from a variety of backgrounds, including real estate developers and builders, charities and foundations, community organizations, and philanthropists. They are motivated to donate because they connect to our core value of increasing accessibility to affordable housing to improve the lives of those living in the Greater Toronto Area’s Jewish community. Affordable housing is a top-of-mind issue which is regularly discussed across all communities in Toronto. Our donors participate in the important mission of connecting the most vulnerable parts of our society to the Jewish community.
“There is the realization that affordable housing is a problem that isn’t going away.”