Thanks in part to a $50,000 grant from the Centre, Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes and Victoria Park Community Homes are joining forces on a housing development that will see 367 affordable rental units built in Hamilton, Ont. They are experimenting with a new collaborative model that will allow smaller and niche-housing providers to build on their strengths and capacities to better compete with the private sector.
With the active support of the Community Housing Transformation Centre and St. Francis Xavier University’s Extension Department, Nova Scotia’s non-profit and co-operative housing groups are exploring the need and desire to strengthen their individual and collective capacity to further develop the sector.
The Rising Tide Community Initiatives affordable housing project in Moncton is expected to welcome its first residents before the summer. The project is also waiting to see if its application for funding under the federal Rapid Housing Initiative will be accepted. If so, the number of dwellings created over three years could increase from 125 to 160, Rising Tide co-founder Dale Hicks told the Centre.
A $1-billion federal grant program for the rapid construction of 3,000 units of affordable housing attracted interest from so many groups that hundreds of viable projects won’t make the cut. The possibility of a renewed RHI program has led housing groups to propose improvements to the hugely popular initiative in anticipation of a second wave of construction to meet the basic needs of Canadians.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, organizations and researchers working to address domestic violence have been reporting a worsening situation across the country. In the run-up to International Women’s Day on March 8, the Centre met with Céline Magontier, who oversees women’s issues at the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), to discuss the increased vulnerability of women when it comes to housing in the context of Covid-19 and the lack of social housing resources.
