01 · Household
A person has been unsheltered for eleven nights. Their dog is with them. Tonight’s shelter bed does not allow animals. A colleague says they should give up the dog, go inside, and that housing can wait.
Intensive Housing Based Case Manager
A rights-based standard for housing people first.
The Intensive Housing Based Case Manager certificate (IHBCMGR) is the training endorsement of EmergencyHousing.CA. Housing First, Ontario statute, safety planning, and intensive case management with people experiencing homelessness and housing precarity.
This program replaces the previous Training Certification Program.
Affordable housing and subsidized housing are human rights.
Begin enrolment View sample certificate Open the toolkit
- Modules
- 27
- Typical completion
- 8–12 wk
- Program hours
- 64+
- Exam
- 80%
Housing FirstCode primacySpecial Priority PolicyOffered at no chargeProudly Ontario
Practice, not a test
What happens first?
Ten field situations. Choose the first move. This is practice for the room — not the examination.
02 · N4
An N4 is taped to a door. The termination date is in four days. The landlord texts that the locks change on Friday.
03 · Hidden homelessness
A person has been sleeping on a cousin’s floor for four months. The cousin’s landlord has started asking questions. A colleague says they are not homeless enough for coordinated access until they use a shelter.
04 · Infestation
A tenant reports bed bugs and mice in a rented unit. They are sleeping in a chair. The landlord says they are messy and should wash everything or move. They ask you whether to stop paying rent.
05 · Subsidy file
A person on ODSP lives in RGI community housing. Recertification is due in ten days. The social housing provider wants last year’s CRA Notice of Assessment and a current income statement, or they will charge market rent. The person is locked out of CRA My Account and cannot print a Notice of Assessment. They have no printer and have stopped opening mail. They are not on Ontario Works — ODSP replaced it.
06 · Alcohol
A person drinks most days. A viewing is booked for tomorrow. A colleague says cancel until they cut down, because the last tenancy ended after noise complaints tied to alcohol.
07 · Opioids
A person uses opioids and is interested in opioid agonist treatment. A unit can be viewed this week. A colleague says housing should wait until they are “stable on a program,” and that the last overdose in a building made the landlord nervous.
08 · Appointments
A person missed three office appointments. Viewings are on the calendar this week. A colleague wants to pause the housing search until they “show they can engage.”
09 · Age 16/17
A 17-year-old has been staying with friends since leaving a parent’s home. They want a lease in their own name. A colleague says they should return home, and that a parent has to sign.
10 · Occupancy
An adult child has come back to a community-housing unit after a relationship ended. The social housing provider says the unit is now overcrowded and wants someone off the lease. The household wants to stay together.
Rights-based position
Affordable housing and subsidized housing are human rights.
The Ontario Human Rights Code has primacy over other provincial legislation, including the Residential Tenancies Act and the Housing Services Act, 2011. People experiencing homelessness are housed first. Treatment is offered. It is never a condition of keys.
A realistic timeframe
Plan for eight to twelve weeks at six to eight hours per week, or a concentrated block of about 64 hours including 10 hours of community service and the examination.
Offered at no charge
There is no tuition and no examination fee. Enrolment is a student membership. Completing the program is an organizational endorsement, not a statutory licence.
Housing First is the method
A person is not required to be sober, treated, or “housing ready” before they receive keys. You wrap supports around the tenancy.
The certificate
Name, designation, date, unique code. Open the sample certificate before you enrol.
Pathway
How the standard is earned
- 01
Enrol
Student membership. Terms of Service and the ethical standard.
- 02
Learn
27 sequential modules. Time-on-task. Server-scored checks.
- 03
Practise
Mock caseload, naloxone drill, crisis and safety planning.
- 04
Serve
10 attested hours in the field.
- 05
Sit the exam
50 questions. 90 minutes. Pass mark 80%.
Try a field tool
Rent math, in public
Thirty percent is a common screen, not a moral line. Enrolment opens arrears, income mapping, notices, and letters.
Toolkit
Utilities for intensive practice
Screeners
OW, ODSP, COHB, SPP, HSA, youth, immigration, eviction prevention.
Money
Rent math, arrears that stop an L1, and an income map.
Dates
N4, internal review, SBT, and LTB clocks.
Letters
SPP support, landlord introduction, rent bank, discretionary benefits.
Curriculum
27 modules, in sequence
You cannot skip ahead. Each module requires time-on-task and a knowledge check scored only on the server. Select a module to read its purpose.
IHB-01 Orientation, Designation & Professional Identity
What an IHBCMGR is, how EmergencyHousing.CA endorses the designation, and the ethical frame that governs every later module.
IHB-02 Housing First & the Intensive Case Management Model
Housing First principles, ICM versus ACT, caseload and contact standards, and what “choice” actually requires in Ontario practice.
IHB-03 Ontario Housing Continuum: Emergency to Affordable to RGI
Emergency shelter, transitional, supportive, affordable, and subsidized housing — and how an IHBCMGR moves a person through them without getting stuck.
IHB-04 Housing Services Act, 2011 & Community Housing
Service managers, RGI, wait lists, local rules, occupancy standards, internal reviews, and the Special Priority gateway.
IHB-05 Residential Tenancies Act & the Landlord and Tenant Board
Security of tenure, notices, illegal lockouts, maintenance, the standard lease, and how an IHBCMGR shows up at the LTB.
IHB-06 Special Priority Policy, Special Status & Safety
SPP eligibility, documentation, confidentiality, and other special-status pathways (Indigenous, youth, chronic homelessness, accessibility).
IHB-07 Intimate Partner Violence, Domestic Violence & VAW Practice
Dynamics of IPV/DV, lethality, safety planning, VAW shelters, HITS-style screening, and housing as a violence-prevention intervention.
IHB-08 AODA, IASR, Customer Service Standard & Service Animals
Accessibility law that binds housing and social-service organizations: customer service, communication, service animals, support persons, and built-form duties.
IHB-09 Bias, Sensitivity, Anti-Oppression & Cultural Safety
How bias shows up in housing decisions, Indigenous cultural safety, anti-Black racism, 2SLGBTQ+ practice, newcomers, and disability.
IHB-10 Harm Reduction, Naloxone/Narcan & Concurrent Disorders
Overdose response, naloxone, the Good Samaritan Act, safer supply and SCS navigation, and housing people who use drugs.
IHB-11 Main Core Training: Trauma-Informed Practice, MI & Boundaries
The daily craft: trauma-informed contact, motivational interviewing, strengths-based planning, crisis, documentation, and dual relationships.
IHB-12 Coordinated Access, HIFIS, Assessment & Documentation
Reaching Home coordinated access, By-Name Lists, HIFIS, common assessments, and the ethics of putting a life in a shared database.
IHB-13 Privacy, Duty to Report, Human Rights & Professional Ethics
PHIPA and FIPPA in housing work, child-protection duty to report, Human Rights Code, and the EmergencyHousing.CA ethical standard.
IHB-14 Capstone: Integrated Ontario Practice Scenarios
Pull the statute, the violence work, the tenancy, and the case-management craft into single files — the way the work actually arrives.
IHB-15 Housing Precarity, Hidden Homelessness & Prevention
What it means to be precariously housed: couch-surfing, overcrowding, unaffordable rent, violent homes, and the work of stopping homelessness before the shelter door.
IHB-16 Ontario Works, ODSP, the Social Benefits Tribunal & Clinics
Income is housing. Navigate OW and ODSP, discretionary benefits, Application Support Workers, community legal clinics, and the Social Benefits Tribunal.
IHB-17 COHB, Disability Tax Credit, Canada Dental Care Plan & RDSP
Federal and joint benefits that change housing math: the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit, T2201 Disability Tax Credit, Canada Dental Care Plan, and the RDSP.
IHB-18 Human Rights Code, Accommodations in Housing & Discrimination
The Code has primacy over other provincial legislation. Housing is a human right. Grounds, the shared-accommodation exception, screening discrimination, and the duty to accommodate to undue hardship.
IHB-19 Eviction Prevention, Rent Banks & Landlord Practice
Stop the eviction: notice literacy, arrears math, rent banks, repayment agreements that can actually be kept, and landlord negotiation that does not invent extra leases.
IHB-20 Youth, Seniors, 2SLGBTQ+, Disability, Newcomers & Indigenous Pathways
Intensive practice is not one-size. Adapt Housing First for youth leaving care, seniors, 2SLGBTQ+ people, disabled tenants, newcomers, and distinctions-based Indigenous pathways.
IHB-21 Safety Planning, Prioritization, Special Status & Coordinated Access
Turn safety planning into logistics, use prioritization without moral ranking, and keep Special Priority and special status inside the rules.
IHB-23 Mental Health, Addiction Disabilities & the OHRC Policy
Mental health and addiction are disabilities under the Code. The OHRC policy on preventing discrimination is the working standard for housing providers — and for IHBCMGR practice.
IHB-24 Crisis Identification in Housing Practice
See the crisis that is in front of you: suicide risk, overdose, intimate partner violence, psychiatric emergency, eviction-as-crisis, and the difference between distress and imminent harm.
IHB-25 Crisis Intervention, De-escalation & Aftercare
Intervene without humiliating anyone. De-escalate, keep the tenancy, connect to care, and do the aftercare that stops the next eviction.
IHB-26 SPDAT Literacy, SPP Prescreen & HSA Priority Verification
Use assessment tools without worshipping them. Know what SPDAT-family tools can and cannot do. Prescreen Special Priority. Verify Housing Services Act priorities with the person, not against them.
IHB-28 Encampment Safety, Outreach & Dignity
Work with people living in encampments without raids-as-case-management. Safety for them and for you. Housing remains the plan.
IHB-29 Community Service, File Standards & Closing Intensive Practice
The 10-hour community service requirement, handover standards, stepping down intensity, and how an IHBCMGR leaves a file another worker could pick up tomorrow.