In 1999 Joseph Segal Z'L was instrumental in helping raise the first $300,000 capital funding necessary to build the very first Yaffa House facility, which subsequently opened its doors to its first residents in 2001. 

Today, The Vancouver Yaffa Housing Society remains western Canada’s only communal home with in-house support exclusively dedicated to serving Jewish adults with Serious Mental Illnesses (SMI) of the Axis 1 type, including schizo-affective disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, bipolar-mood disorder, major depressive disorder, autism Asperger’s disorder, to name just a few.

More than just subsidized housing, Yaffa House provides kosher meals, Jewish cultural and religious programming, onsite mental health support and supervision, and actively promotes community inclusion, awareness, and education.

Joe Segal's last meeting to discuss charity funding-raising was in his own home just days before his passing, with the Board of the Vancouver Yaffa Housing Society.

His explicit wish expressed during that final meeting was to help the Yaffa Housing Society receive the funding and community support necessary towards guaranteeing the essential services our community's most vulnerable so depend on, into perpetuity.