Seaton House - Facilities and Regulations

Facilities and Regulations

There is room for 434 men in the main facility. 54 men are housed in the adjacent O'Neill House, a "time-out" facility for clients who are in crisis and unable to function within the main facility. During hot or cold weather alerts this facility is expanded to provide additional emergency shelter. An additional 140 men are housed in the Seaton House Annex through the Annex Harm Reduction Program. Until the 1990s, the shelter operated on a highly regimented basis imposing a series of rules and regulations including a ban on alcohol and requiring men to get out of bed by 5:15 am. A review of the shelter in the early 1990s was prompted by complaints of staff brutality and authoritarian regulations at the facility. Rules into the 1990s included a requirement to register for a bed by 1:30 pm. The hostel itself did not open until 4 pm and returning clients were expected to provide proof that they applied for at least three jobs during the day, the doors were locked at midnight and clients were expected to be in bed an hour earlier. Lights would go on at 5 am; breakfast was served at 5:30 am and 6:30 am and clients had to leave the premises by 7:30 am. Clients were expected to spend their days looking for work.

Seaton House provides bathing facilities, delousing, a barber, laundry and lockers as well as counselling and life skills training. Typically, a client will sleep in a large room with several bunk beds and shared bathroom. Three meals a day are provided. Clothing and shoes are available, if needed, as well as medical care from doctors and nurses.

Satellite residences are operated at the Birchmount Residence in Scarborough, Ontario for men over 55 and at Downsview Dell in North York for men who have agreed to abstain from drugs and alcohol.

Funded by the provincial and city governments, the institution now operates on a 24-hour basis.