Sean Gadon
Director of Partnerships
City of Toronto Affordable Housing

Sean Gadon was born in Toronto and lives with his family in the "Little Malta" neighborhood in the west end of the city. Sean cares deeply about our city and has been active in Toronto politics and affordable housing since the late 1970's. As a citizen he has served at City Hall as a member of Toronto's Economic Development Committee and the Housing Standards Appeal Committee.

From 1985 to 1988 as the Executive Assistant to two Ontario Housing Ministers he was instrumental in rolling out several major nonprofit housing initiatives to create over 25,000 new homes in the province. From 1989 to 1993 he co-ordinated the development of over 2,000 non-profit and co-operative homes for the Labour Council of Metropolitan Toronto and York Region. During the past decade Sean has worked as a senior advisor to Toronto Mayors Barbara Hall, Mel Lastman and David Miller.

In 2002 he was the catalyst behind solving the homeless crisis at “Tent City” through implementing an innovative “rent supplement” program to assist 100 displaced homeless individuals. In 2004, along with the Toronto Community Foundation, he successfully broke new national housing policy ground in negotiating the Toronto Strong Communities Rent Supplement Pilot Project. This led to the introduction of an $80 million federal rent supplement initiative. He was also an architect of Toronto's successful “Streets to Homes” initiative - which provides housing and supports to the street homeless.

Upon the creation of Toronto's Affordable Housing Office in 2005 Sean was appointed the Director of Partnerships with a focus on intergovernmental relations, advocacy and stakeholder relations.

As the Director of Partnerships he is working with stakeholders to develop 1,000 new rental homes a year and revitalize large government owned sites in Toronto.

He is a graduate from the University of Toronto's Urban Studies Program where he acquired his love of all things urban. In his spare time he is the volunteer president of Raising the Roof - Canada's national charity which is raising funds and awareness to end homelessness in Canada.