South Shore Open Doors Association (SSODA), established in 2021,  is the living vision of the community’s collaborative approach to addressing the rapidly increasing housing crisis and situations of energy poverty in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. SSODA hosts Lunenburg County’s Coordinated Access System, bringing consistency to the process by which people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and energy poverty access housing and related services within our geographic area. We do this by:

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• Defining our work through a Housing First approach
   

• Gathering real-time data about the supply of and demand for housing resources;
   

• Implementing a service delivery approach with community agencies acting as referral access points to service, a standardized workflow for triage and assessment; prioritization; and vacancy matching and referral
   

• Providing housing support services for individuals and families who may need additional resources and wrap around supports to maintain their housing
   

• Providing access to financial management services through our voluntary Trustee program.