2024-25 Successful Projects
AI-Powered Toolkit for Transforming Faith-based Lands into Affordable
Housing – Montréal, Quebec
This lab helps faith communities transform underused lands into
affordable housing by using geospatial mapping and AI-driven models to
identify development-ready sites. It provides design concepts, 3D models
and best practices to guide land conversion by analyzing zoning, service
access and housing needs. The project offers a replicable solution,
enabling faith-based groups to create affordable housing while
sustaining their social missions.
Community Interest Company: A New Investment Model for Community Housing
Solutions – Halifax, Nova Scotia
This lab aims to unlock large-scale capital for affordable housing in
Canada by exploring the use of a Community Interest Company (CIC) model.
A CIC can balance affordable housing needs with investor interests,
attracting private investment and reducing costs. The project will
develop a strategic plan and CIC prototypes to scale housing projects,
build sector capacity and drive sustainable growth.
Factory-Built Affordable Housing – Toronto, Ontario
This lab accelerates affordable housing delivery by streamlining site
readiness and using factory-built construction. It focuses on creating a
prototype for preparing public land for modular housing and developing a
roadmap to scale this approach. By fostering collaboration among
municipal departments, community housing agencies, builders and
landowners, this lab offers a replicable model to deliver high-quality
affordable housing faster and more efficiently.
Forward Together: Pooling Community Housing Resources for Greater Impact
– Ottawa, Ontario
This lab aims to scale community housing by helping providers pool their
land and resources into a shared portfolio, enabling growth and more
affordable housing. It will develop practical solutions and pilot a
prototype in Ottawa with local partners through a co-design process. The
goal is to create an implementable and replicable model that preserves
existing housing and supports new development of more affordable
housing.
Igniting Community Investment in Non-Market Housing – Ottawa, Ontario
This lab aims to increase funding for non-market housing providers by
reducing the risks of community investment. The lab will use a 2-part
approach. The first part will explore the concerns of individual, group
and institutional investors in Ottawa, Winnipeg and Halifax to
understand cultural, policy and behavioural challenges. By addressing
these barriers, the lab can unlock funding for community housing and
strengthen local economies across Canada.
National Community Bond for Affordable Housing – Toronto, Ontario
Building on the success of local bonds, this lab aims to develop a
ready-to-implement national community bond to fund affordable housing
across Canada. It will support housing providers of all sizes in
developing projects tailored to local needs by providing early-stage
capital. This initiative can unlock new funding, stimulate development
and create a robust pipeline of affordable housing nationwide.
Preserving Chinatown’s Affordable Housing – Toronto, Ontario
This lab seeks to create a culturally competent housing strategy that
combines traditional Chinatown models with modern community land trust
approaches to preserve aging affordable housing. By developing and
testing a tailored acquisition and governance model in Toronto’s
Chinatown, it aims to preserve existing affordable housing while
ensuring it remains community-led and culturally rooted. This scalable
approach could protect and expand culturally significant affordable
housing, setting a precedent for similar communities across Canada.
Scalable Partnerships Between Mid-Sized Housing Providers and Housing
Developments – Ottawa, Ontario
This lab aims to help community housing providers overcome financial and
structural barriers to build more affordable housing. By collaborating
with private developers, legal experts and financial institutions, it
will explore partnership models to make mixed-income housing development
more feasible. Partner teams in Halifax, Cape Breton and Ottawa will
test adaptable frameworks and tools to help community housing providers
scale efforts, improve sustainability and expand affordable housing
nationwide.
Scaling Up Canada’s Community Housing Sector: Bundling Assets and
Building Capacity – Toronto, Ontario
This lab introduces a model for community housing providers to pool
assets regionally, enabling easier financing and development of
large-scale affordable housing while maintaining independence. Using 3
diverse models in operation the lab will co-develop solution porotype
that is bilingual, multicultural and scalable, leading to more
affordable housing . By bundling resources, organizations can boost
financial capacity, secure government sites and create mixed-income
housing for lasting social impact.
Scalable Zoning Reform for Faith-based Affordable Housing – Toronto
Ontario
This lab seeks to reform restrictive zoning laws that hinder community
and faith-based organizations from developing affordable housing on
their land. It will create flexible zoning solutions to reduce barriers
and speed up approvals by collaborating with planners, policymakers and
stakeholders. With engagement from 10 municipalities, the project aims
to unlock underused community lands for affordable housing, addressing
the crisis while preserving their community purpose.
Streamlining the Path to Partnership with Community Housing Providers
and Private Market Developers – Toronto, Ontario
This lab aims to help community housing providers acquire high-quality
land from private developers to build affordable homes. By creating
win-win partnerships, financial models and clear agreements, it
facilitates land transfers for housing near essential services. This
approach strengthens housing providers, unlocks valuable land and
increases the supply of affordable housing across Canada.
Unlocking Family Homes for Supportive Housing with Community Land Trusts
– Kingston, Ontario
This lab aims to develop a housing model that addresses the growth
challenges of community land trusts and the shortage of supportive
housing for people with disabilities. By designing a prototype solution,
it will explore how families can contribute properties to the community
land trusts under terms that ensure permanent supportive housing. With
legal, financial and operational frameworks, this model has the
potential to scale across Canada, providing long-term housing solutions
for those in need.
2021 Successful Projects
2SLGBTQIA+ Seniors Co-living Apartment
This Solutions Lab uses an innovative approach to better understand the unique
life experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ seniors. By better understanding their needs
and the systems that influence their lived experience, this Lab will
co-develop innovative and supportive solutions to housing for 2SLGBTQIA+
seniors.
Seniors' Hidden Housing Solutions
Many seniors are “over housed” in single-detached homes that are unaffordable
and hard to maintain. This Solutions Lab will explore housing solutions for
in-need seniors through home sharing, secondary suites and accessory
dwellings. It will analyze challenges holistically by looking at issues such
as social isolation, risk of homelessness, affordability and per capita
greenhouse gas emissions. Best practices will inform the lab to co-develop
policy and program solutions across British Columbia and Canada.
Green Violin Veterans Village Lab
This Solutions Lab will explore increasing the housing supply for low-income
veterans who are disproportionately impacted by homelessness. This project
will co-develop a faster and more affordable solution for housing and build an
innovative modular tiny home community infill project.
Social Financing for Social Inclusion
This Solutions Lab will co-develop solutions for social isolation and the lack
of inclusive housing options for people with developmental disabilities
through a social financing model. This project aims to implement its
solution(s) on a large, cross-country scale using community connectors or
facilitators in existing housing.
Understanding and Estimating Hidden Homelessness in Saskatoon
This Solutions Lab will co-develop a framework that strengthens decision-maker
understanding of hidden homelessness in Saskatoon. It will bring together
people with lived experience and service providers with existing relationships
with people experiencing homelessness. The project team will develop a
framework for policy and decision-making that addresses the self-identified
needs of hidden homeless populations.
Transforming Policy Responses to Homeless Encampments in Canada:
Implementing a Rights-Based, GBA+ Approach
The National Protocol on Homeless Encampments in Canada – A Human Rights
Approach Protocol is a series of rights-based principles. It is being
increasingly used by municipalities, stakeholder groups and encampment
residents. This Solutions Lab will co-develop an effective approach to
fostering inter- and intra-governmental collaboration in response to
encampments. It will build on the Protocol and implement it at the local
level.
Mechanisms for Funnelling Institutional ESG funds into Affordable Housing
Development Projects
This Solutions Lab will co-develop a platform that provides a consistent,
comparable and transparent funding market for affordable housing projects. It
uses environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to evaluate desired
environmental, social and financial outcomes. It will enable the rapid scaling
of private and institutional capital flows to projects and create stronger
partnerships between developers, lenders, investors, regulators and the
community.
African Canadian Affordable Housing
This Solutions Lab will co-develop and deliver a more appropriate affordable
housing solution for African Canadian communities. It will focus on creating a
multigenerational affordable housing program that provides a traditional and
sustainable environment for community members. It will give residents the
necessary tools and support for success. Solutions will be transferable to
communities with shared features.
2020 Successful Projects
A Home in a Neighbourhood Where I Belong
This Solutions Lab connects stakeholders from different sectors with people
with disabilities and their families. Participants identify challenges to
building inclusive housing. They share their knowledge and co-create and test
solutions for creating inclusive, affordable housing.
Nunavut Condominium Corporation Insurance Solutions Lab
This Solutions Lab works with our partners to identify and engage key
stakeholders exploring relevant issues and challenges with denied or expensive
building insurance. It also identifies and prototypes potential solutions to
this problem. The goal is to prevent loss of the structures and continue to
house vulnerable populations.
Affordable Housing for Social Inclusion
This Solutions Lab creates innovative, inclusive housing options for
individuals with developmental disabilities nationwide. Through a
collaborative process, potential solutions will be piloted. A key tool to be
built is a detailed journey/experience map of the process for developing new
housing that could embed the principles of "reverse inclusion".
Creating Home Together: Supporting Women+ Through Housing Transitions
This Solutions Lab creates a roadmap on solutions to remove barriers to
shelters and other services in the homelessness and violence against women
sectors. Women and transgender people with lived expertise and nationwide
partners will participate in workshops. The ideas and materials generated will
help to develop adaptable housing and support solutions.
Housing Journeys Reimagined: Toward a Supportive Affordable Homeownership
Opportunity
The Solutions Lab aims to introduce a new supportive, affordable ownership
model that can help end chronic homelessness and generational poverty. The
replication of this model across Canada would help decrease chronic
homelessness by increasing options for affordable, stable housing. This
approach could also reduce returns to homelessness by developing a wealth- and
equity-generating opportunity for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Housing through an Autism Lens: A Pathway from Crisis to Solutions
The Solutions Lab develops a pathway to independent and affordable living for
autistic adults. It includes an integrated set of flexible housing-related
supports and services (based on functional ability and the spectrum of Autism
Spectrum Disorder or ASD needs). It also proposes actual brick and mortar
solutions.
Building with Mission
This Solutions Lab tries to reduce pressures on hospitals and long-term care
homes by determining and addressing the causes. The key is to impact social
determinants of health and creating housing based on local needs. The goal is
to create a collaborative playbook by documenting insights and learnings to
develop affordable and supportive housing campuses.
Developing easy-to-use community decision-making tools to help achieve
National Housing Strategy Goals
This Solutions lab opens the perceived black box of housing data to be easily
used by decision makers. This project will be completed through a series of
online workshops. The result will be a better understanding of the initial
problems that will allow us to provide and support evidence-based consensus on
solutions. It will also help teams to assess end-results for accountability,
and identify further innovative opportunities.
2019 Successful Projects
Medicine Hat Systems Transformation Solutions Lab
The Solutions Lab will examine how to co-design a Systems Transformation
Initiative that results in an integrated prevention, homelessness, housing,
corrections, and health systems design and transformation process.
Balanced Housing Lab
The Solutions Lab will examine the emerging housing issues facing
middle-income earners to be able to live and work within the City of North
Vancouver, Squamish Nation, and District of West Vancouver.
Indigenous Housing Solutions Lab
The Solutions Lab will examine solutions to answer the question: What if we
could co-create Indigenous homes to be sources of health, wealth and
connection in tune with culture and the environment?
Surfacing our Strengths
The Solutions Lab will examine cross-sectoral, culturally appropriate,
person-centered responses to housing needs and experiences of homelessness for
women+. This includes women and people of marginalized gender identities
(herein: “women+”) experiencing homelessness – including women+ and children
fleeing violence.
Indigenous Housing and Home-Lands Solutions Lab
The Solutions Lab will examine the economic development and employment
opportunity related to a growing Indigenous population with legally recognized
territorial assets and capital, and a need for housing.
Let’s Talk… Home and Community
The Solutions Lab will examine the Question: How might we promote social and
economic inclusion through a housing model with individuals with developmental
disabilities and newcomers to Canada by leveraging existing community assets
and hosting conversations for each group to co-design “good community”?
From Prison to Homelessness: Ending a Perilous Trajectory
The Solutions Lab will examine how we can help increase the availability and
access to suitable housing for Canadians who leave the prison system, while
also providing opportunities for offenders to gain employment skills training
to improve their opportunities of finding meaningful employment.
Affordable Housing Hackathon Solutions Lab
The Solutions Lab will examine new and practical solutions to the construction
of more affordable housing stock by removing barriers and opening new paths
for innovation in planning, construction and regulation so that private
industry and the not-for-profit industry can meet the needs of the community.
Community Studios
The Solutions Lab will examine the creation of a new model of supportive and
shared modular housing.
Housing Financialization
(Directed Solutions Lab)
In partnership with the Social Innovation Institute, this directed Solutions
Lab will explore the financialization of housing.
2018 Successful Projects
Affordable Housing Renewal
The Solutions Lab will develop net zero or net-zero ready retrofit design
options and prototype 4 to 6 low-rise wood-frame multi-unit residential
buildings.
Done!
Link copied
Share via Email
