The 2024-2025 competitive process seeks solutions that advance the community housing sector’s collective mission of increasing the supply of affordable housing. It  prioritizes solutions with potential regional or national impact over localized interventions.

Community housing providers face unique challenges when it comes to creating affordable housing and deepening or preserving affordability when compared to private sector developers. These challenges exist in:

• financing
• acquisition of land or existing affordable housing
• development
• construction
• operation
• replication

If you have a solution that specifically helps community housing providers overcome these barriers, your solution may be eligible. Your solution is especially relevant if it's replicable and
results in the creation of affordable units or enhances or preserves affordability.  

Ideal candidates demonstrate a commitment to generating affordable housing units within 1 to 3 years following the demonstration – using funding to increase sector adoption/replication of the demonstrated solution.

See the Applicant Guide for details. CMHC reserves the right to decide if a proposed solution is in scope for this call for proposals.

Successful projects are eligible for funding up to a maximum of $250,000*.

*Note: CMHC may grant larger amounts based on the rationale and expected  impact provided by applicants. For more details, please see the Applicant Guide

To be eligible, applicants must be organizations meeting the following criteria:

• Organizations duly incorporated as legal entities in Canada and validly existing in Canada before receiving funding. This requirement can be completed after submitting the application but must be completed before any funding is received.
• Organizations in good standing with CMHC and not in breach of any terms and conditions under any previous project with the Demonstrations Initiative or other CMHC program. Applicants in breach of any terms and conditions or who fail to meet integrity requirements may be denied funding on that basis.

Note
Employees of CMHC and anyone connected with the evaluation of the applications for the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative are prohibited from participating. This includes entering as an applicant, being a member of an applicant’s team or as a collaborator.

You can participate in the Demonstrations Initiative if you are part of a broad range of housing stakeholders (as applicants or partners), such as, but not limited to:

• community housing providers, affordable housing providers, non-profit affordable housing organizations and affordable housing cooperatives
• government agencies and corporations – provincial, territorial and municipal
• Indigenous organizations – First Nation, Inuit and Métis
• Canadian companies organizations and associations
• private and non-profit builders and developers and real estate agencies
• associations, networks or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) seeking to demonstrate and scale new and innovative approaches
• agencies, associations and NGOs involved in National Housing Straregy priority area activities, including:
  • seniors associations
  • veterans associations
  • mental health advocates
  • homelessness hub
  • non-profit organizations
  • sustainability agencies
• academic institutions and innovation hubs involved in National Housing Strategy priority area activities and audiences
• end users, people with lived experience that can provide first-hand expertise to the demonstration, adaptation or  replication of the solution.

Note
International organizations and individuals may be collaborators or members of the demonstration team but not the applicant. They must partner as collaborators with a Canadian applicant.

Note
Eligible applicants must indicate any relevant project funding that they have applied to, been approved for or have received. Also, please indicate collaborators’ funding and include funding from other Strategy initiatives. For example: the Affordable Housing Fund – new construction, Affordable Housing Fund – repair and renewal and the Apartment or the Construction Loan Program.

Eligible activities include:

• developing new information, evidence and data related to the demonstrated solutions
• engaging in collaborative work with an expanded group of stakeholders to support greater adoption or scaling
• disseminating information and knowledge and transferring capacity and expertise related to community housing providers solutions
• developing adapted scaling approaches to expand impact of solutions meeting the specific needs of the Community Housing sector
• mobilizing stakeholders for scaling such solutions

Examples of funded activities include:

• Highlighting high-impact innovations already implemented in a real-world setting, to support greater sector awareness and appetite for adoption.
• Documenting its performance and benefits based on evidence, including outcomes for its expected users and adopters and National Housing Strategy outcomes. The goal is to increase interest in replicating or adopting the demonstrated solution.
• Showing potential adopters and replicators how to implement the innovation in various contexts through:
  • tools development
  • knowledge transfer
  • capacity-building
  • development and implementation of scaling models and approaches
  • adaptation and replication processes
  • collaborative approaches
  • partnerships/value networks development, networking and showcasing stakeholder engagement across diverse geographic, social, cultural, economic or regulatory areas and sustainable solutions.

Note
If the innovation you wish to demonstrate has not yet been implemented in a real-world context or does not have at least some early evidence of resulting in positive impact, other funding programs might be a better fit.

Note
Costs not directly associated with demonstrating the community housing provider’s solutions will likely be ineligible for funding through this program. However, such costs may be eligible if they are integral to the larger project.

If your project is selected for funding, you will be required to provide progress and final reports on project activities, as well as a case study and indicators documenting the performance and outcomes of the demonstration project.

Follow these steps to apply:

1. Register and create an online profile and complete the various sections of the application portal.
2. Upload the other requested documents to your profile.

Required files for your application:

• Download and complete the Integrity Declaration Form and upload it to your online profile (mandatory).
• Download and complete the Statement of Work (SOW) and Knowledge Mobilization (KM) with Budget template and upload it to your online profile (mandatory).
• Download and complete the Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) template and upload it to your online profile (mandatory).
• Gather support letters from your partners and upload them to your online profile (mandatory for projects related to Indigenous housing and/or Indigenous populations groups and otherwise, optional but will strengthen your proposal).
• If you wish to, gather technical information regarding the nature, characteristics and benefits of your innovation and upload it to your online profile.

Note
Use the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative Applicant Guide 2024 to guide your application.

Eligibility screening

• All complete applications will first be processed by CMHC for eligibility and integrity screening. CMHC will only contact you to tell you if your application is ineligible to move to the evaluation committee.

Evaluation

• CMHC’s evaluation process is supported by internal and/or external reviewers with relevant experience and subject-matter expertise and/or people with lived experience, who will assess the quality of the applications by reviewing and scoring them. Only applications scored at 80% or higher by reviewers will be considered for funding.
• Evaluation criteria include:
  • innovation details
  • readiness and sustainability
  • sector appetite
  • stakeholders’ engagement in demonstrations activities
  • affordable housing sector impacts
  • innovation in relation with housing units
  • project objective
  • statement of work (SOW) and knowledge mobilization (KM) plan
  • partners
  • team members
  • project costs and funding contributions
  • bonus: National Housing Strategy priority groups
  • risk assessment and mitigation

Prioritization

For proposals reaching the minimum 80% threshold, CMHC will prioritize the following:

• Solutions that focus on meeting the specific needs of one or more of the National Housing Strategy priority groups.
• For solutions focusing on Indigenous housing or Indigenous populations, projects will be led by an Indigenous organizations or group or they should have a substantial role in the demonstration project.

CMHC also aims to ensure a diversified portfolio of solutions for the community housing provider sector. Therefore, we may consider additional prioritization criteria among proposals that reach the minimum 80% threshold, such as, but not limited to:

• diversity of funding recipients
• diversity of National Housing Strategy priority population groups
• diversity in geographic/regulatory representation (to see how solutions might require adaptation in different contexts)
• diversity across types of solutions where limited demonstrations have taken place

The Demonstrations Initiative follows a continuous intake process. This means that additional prioritization criteria may be applied over time, such as alignment with emerging federal housing priorities. If new criteria are introduced:

• The prioritization criteria will be updated on this web page.
• Any new prioritization criteria would only apply to applications submitted after the updated criteria, to ensure fairness.

You can expect to receive notice of decision from CMHC approximately 8 weeks after submitting your application, depending on the volume of applications.

Please see the Applicant Guide for more details.

• National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative Applicant Guide 2024
• Integrity Declaration Form
• Statement of Work and Knowledge Mobilization with Budget template
• Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) template
• Glossary
• CMHC Brand Guidelines
• 2024 NHS Solutions Lab Applicants Guide
• Integrity Declaration Form
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Budget template

External resources:

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council – Guidelines for Effective Knowledge Mobilization
• Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2018)
• Women and Gender Equality Canada – Resources for applying a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) lens to your work

If you’re interested in being a reviewer for the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative selection process, please connect with us at: Innovation-Research@cmhc.ca with the subject line: Reviewer for NHS Demonstrations Initiative.

The Demonstrations Initiative seeks to include a diversity of relevant complementary expertise/experience in areas such as, but not limited to:

• community housing providers
• affordable housing development
• grassroots organizations
• financial models
• land acquisition approaches
• innovation (social and technical)
• National Housing Strategy priority groups
• anti-racism and equity
• Indigenous reconciliation
• Gender-based Analysis Plus
• lived experience

2021 Successful Projects

2020 Successful Projects

2019 Successful Projects

2018 Successful Projects