“What Actually Happens at One City?”: A Website Refresh to Tell our Story

“What actually happens at One City?”

It's a question we hear often. It’s also a fair one.

Homelessness is complex. Housing is complex. The systems that surround both are complex. Behind every program is a web of partnerships, policies, relationships, funding, and countless day-to-day decisions that rarely fit neatly into a headline or social media post. In a world where so much of what we see is shaped by algorithms, it’s easy for complex issues to be reduced to a photo, a headline, or a 30-second clip. But community work deserves context, nuance, and room for engagement.

We’ve started rebuilding our website with that in mind. Over the coming months, we’ll be rolling out updated pages across the site, beginning with Housing and the Trinity Hub. You’ll begin to see new and expanded information about things like our Community Development work, training opportunities, and the values and philosophies that guide our decisions. 

For us, it’s an opportunity to open the door a little wider. 

One City has grown significantly over the past several years. Today, our work spans affordable housing, emergency shelter, community development, low-barrier employment, training, healthcare partnerships, systems advocacy, and much more. As the organization has evolved, we’ve heard questions from neighbours, students, healthcare providers, elected officials, partner organizations, potential volunteers, donors, and people looking for support. Sometimes people are looking for services or ways to help. Sometimes they’re simply trying to better understand what they’re seeing in their community. 

People deserve to know how their community is responding to rising homelessness and housing instability. 

We don’t expect everyone to agree with every decision we make. We do believe that informed communities are better equipped to ask questions, challenge ideas, and build solutions together. 

This project also reflects something we’ve been thinking about more intentionally as an organization: that transparency isn’t simply about publishing reports or responding to questions. It’s about making our work understandable. That means explaining not only what we do, but why we do it. It means sharing our successes alongside our challenges. 

Some conversations deserve more than a headline, and good community work shouldn’t have to compete with an algorithm to be understood. 

This week, we’re excited to launch updated Housing and Trinity Community Hub pages, with expanded information, new resources, and frequently asked questions. These are the first of many updates. Over the coming months, we’ll continue refreshing the rest of our website to better reflect the breadth of One City’s work and make it easier for people to connect with us. 

No website will ever capture everything that happens at One City. 

Relationships, community, and belonging can’t be fully explained on a screen. But we hope it helps make our work a little more visible, a little easier to understand, and a little more accessible. Understanding doesn’t require agreement, but it does create more space for thoughtful conversations, meaningful collaboration, and better solutions for our community.

Auden Palmer

Director of Community Programs