After you apply for community housing
You've submitted your community housing application. Learn what you should expect during the application review process, how to keep your application active and what happens when housing becomes available.
Once you complete and submit your application through the portal, Housing Services will check that all required information and documents are included. Allow up to eight weeks for review.
If your application is incomplete, we'll email you details about what's needed. All communication will be sent by email from Niagara Region. Check your junk mail folder to ensure you don't miss important messages.
Once your application is approved, Housing Services will email you to log into the portal and to review and update your housing selections.
Understanding your application status
When you log into the Housing Services Applicant Portal, you'll see one of these statuses.
- Incomplete: Your application needs more information or documents. Check your email or the portal for details about what's missing.
- Active: Your application is complete and you're on the wait list.
- Cancelled: If you asked us to cancel it, we were unable to contact you, or you declined or did not respond to an offer
Keep your application up to date
It is your responsibility to keep your application current. If your information is out of date, we may not be able to reach you when housing becomes available, and your application could be cancelled.
You must update your application in the Housing Services Applicant Portal, if any of these change:
- Contact information (phone number, email, mailing address)
- Housing selections
For changes to income, household members or housing needs need, contact Housing Services.
When housing becomes available
When a unit becomes available, the housing provider will contact the first person on their wait list. If that person can't be reached or refuses the offer, the provider moves to the next person on the list.
Offers are made by phone and / or email. You must provide a reliable phone number and email address where you can be contacted. You have 24 hours to respond to an offer.
You're allowed one offer of subsidized housing. If you don't respond within 24 hours, can't be reached, or refuse the offer, your application will be cancelled, and you will need to reapply and start over at the bottom of the wait list.
Wait times
Housing Services cannot predict or estimate when you will be offered housing. Wait times vary depending on:
- The size of unit you need
- The city / town you select
- How many units become available
- Your priority status, if applicable
What Housing Services does
Housing Services
- Reviews applications for eligibility
- Maintains the wait list
Housing Services does not
- Offer housing to applicants
- Act as a landlord
- Manage housing properties
- Handle tenant issues after move in
Appealing a decision
Housing Services communicates eligibility decisions through a letter of decision.
If you disagree with a decision:
- First, try to work with the person who made the decision
- If you're unable to resolve it, you can request an appeal by sending a letter explaining your reasons
- You must send your appeal within 10 days of receiving the decision letter
Send your appeal to:
Housing Services
1815 Sir Isaac Brock Way
Thorold, Ontario L2V 4T7
Only certain types of decisions are reviewable.