Getting Information

Finding a Place to Stay:
You may need to stay somewhere while you look for a place to live. You can look for an apartment hotel, a travel hostel, or a student residence in a university or college. These are often places where you can stay for days, weeks, or months for a low cost.

Temporary Housing:
If you do not have a place to stay when you first come to Ottawa, call any Immigrant Settlement Agency ( Click Here to see a list of agencies and their contacts).

You can also contact:

Housing Help
202-116 Lisgar Street
Phone: (613) 563-4532

If you arrive at the airport without a place to stay, ask for a list of reasonably priced hotels and hostels in Ottawa and contact an Immigrant Settlement Agency as soon as possible.

For government sponsored refugees only:

Reception House
204 Boteler Street,
Phone: (613) 789-4338

Finding Information:

Immigrant Settlement Agencies
There are several agencies that can help you start your life in Ottawa. These agencies are called settlement agencies. Settlement agencies can give you information about many things, for example:
• Citizenship documents
• How to find a place to live
• Where to buy food, clothing or furniture at a low cost
• How to find a job and where children can go to school
• Health services
• Where to learn English or French.

These services are almost always free and always confidential. Many are offered in languages other than English and French.

Community Health and Resource Centers:
Community Health and Resource Centers can give you information about services, organizations or events happening in your neighborhood. Many of these Centers offer services in languages other than English and French. The main programs of these centers are related to health, social services and community development. All services are free and confidential. To find the nearest Community Health and Resource Center, click here.

Public Libraries:
Public libraries in Ottawa offer many free services to residents. To get a free library card, go to any Ottawa Public Library (OPL) branch with photo identification. Your library card gives you access to all branches (33 in 2006) of the Ottawa Public Library and the bookmobile. If you borrow material from the library and do not bring it back on time, (by the “due date”), you will have to pay a fine.

Libraries may have multilingual books, magazines, newspapers, records, CDs, DVDs, videos, internet, pedometers and audio books on CD and tape.

To find a public library in your area, look up the word Libraries in the blue pages of the telephone book. The phonebook will give you both the telephone number and street address of the library. You can call the library to find out what hours they are open.