Coast-to-Coast Affordable Housing Innovations
Kehilla Residential Programme, present Coast-to-Coast Affordable Housing Innovations, Made in Canada Solutions, a virtual webinar showcasing projects in 6 Canadian cities.
This event will help demonstrate that affordable housing has the potential to be an immediately implementable solution in new, more effective methods of delivery that surpass traditional models. Each Canadian market is unique, with affordable housing needs varying significantly from city to city.
According to Statistics Canada 2016 Census data, 1.29 million households spent over 30 percent of their income on housing. This impact has been felt especially hard across Canadian cities, which are experiencing an unprecedented affordability crisis driven by a severe shortage of affordable housing.
Thank you to everyone for joining us on Thursday, December 3, 2020! The webinar was a great success. If you weren't able to catch the event or would like to watch it again, please click on the link below.
Our Projects
Sen̓áḵw Development | VANCOUVER, BC
The Sen̓áḵw lands are part of the Squamish Nation's unceded territory, which has been awarded ownership after decades of patient negotiations. With full control of these lands, the First Nation is now ready to develop them to add much-needed low-carbon rental housing to Vancouver's housing stock. This development will be a transit-oriented, mixed-use project of approximately 6,000 units that will ensure the Squamish Nation's financial security for generations to come. The initiative will provide much-needed jobs and allow the community to meet its housing, education, and social service needs, ensuring their success and well-being in the future. The Nation's ongoing legacy will be memorialized by weaving their story and history into the project's very architecture, showcasing climate leadership and setting a new global standard for sustainability by employing district energy and low-carbon transportation. Above all, this project will protect the Squamish Nation's deep connection to the environment and its ongoing stewardship of the land.
Templemont Project | CALGARY, AB
Trinity Place Foundation of Alberta will showcase Templemont, an innovative seniors housing project in Calgary that provides housing for low-income seniors, encourages ageing.
Affordable housing options are a critical need for the growing population of seniors in the province of Alberta. This need rings true for Calgary’s Temple community’s senior residents, who have found it challenging to find housing within their means. In response, the Trinity Place Foundation of Alberta has partnered with Alberta’s Provincial government to produce a 120-unit care facility that will provide low-income seniors with safe, comfortable, and affordable homes. The Templemont project comprises two buildings. One building will deliver 70 supportive housing units, and the second will contain 50 one-two bedroom apartments for low-income seniors when completed. These units will allow senior residents to age in place and maintain social connections within their communities. One of the building includes a large multi-purpose hall shared with multiple community groups during the week that will encourage interaction and limit social isolation. This project is an innovative solution that responds to the community’s needs and makes life easier for those who need it the most.
Common Zibi | OTTAWA, ON
This co-living residential project located in Ottawa's new Zibi redevelopment captures the increasingly popular co-living trend gaining momentum across North America. New York City-based Common, a leader in co-living spaces, has partnered with Canadian real-estate firm Dream Unlimited to develop a 25-story building that will offer 399 beds with a mix of co-living and traditional rental units. Residents share common areas, community rooms and other shared amenities that provide them with opportunities for social gatherings and a greater sense of community. Expected to be completed in 2023, this project will offer a more sociable lifestyle that addresses loneliness issues by providing spaces to maintain social connections. With housing prices increasingly rise to a level beyond many homeowners' financial reach, the Common Zibi is an opportunity to create a unique living experience and housing option for residents to live affordably.
One North End | HALIFAX, NS
The One North End (ONE) Community Benefits Agreement will be the first of its kind in the North End of Halifax, enabling transparent and inclusive design by addressing the needs of the most vulnerable voices in the area. This agreement offers a phenomenal opportunity to offset years of gentrification in the North End. This community includes generations of African Nova Scotians (ANS) displaced from the historically significant community of Africville, a primarily Black community located on the south shore of the Bedford Basin, on Halifax's outskirts. To make amends to this documented wrong, the project's concept and design will be predominantly responsive to the ANS community's needs. With a primary focus on building economic capacity within the ANS community, this agreement aims to create jobs that lead to meaningful long-term employment, incubators, and retail spaces to support entrepreneurship and innovation growth--all of which reflect the populations that it serves.
Our Program
Attendees will be guided via video presentations through each development vision and offered an exclusive project overview.
The webinar will be moderated by Jeanhy Shim, President and Founder of Housing Lab Toronto and we will hear opening remarks from the Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development the Honorable Ahmed Hussen. The event format will consist of short video presentations by all project cities followed by a moderated panel discussion.
Opening Remarks
Honorable Ahmed Hussen: Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
The Honourable Ahmed Hussen was first elected in 2015 to represent the riding of York South—Weston. Appointed as Minister of Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship in 2017 and in 2019 when re-elected as Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development ( which includes CMHC) by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Minister Hussen immigrated to Canada in 1993 and settled in Toronto. He began his career in public service after high school, working with the Hamilton-Wentworth social services department. Minister Hussen co-founded the Regent Park Community Council in 2002. As its president, he played a key role in securing the $500-million revitalization project for Regent Park while advocating for its 15,000 residents to ensure that their interests were protected. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for his leadership efforts in the Regent Park community.
Serving as National President for the Canadian Somali Congress, Minister Hussen worked with national and regional authorities to advocate on important issues to Canadians of Somali heritage, strengthening civic engagement and integration. His results-driven reputation led to an invitation from the Toronto City Summit Alliance to join a task force for modernizing income security for adults.
Master of Ceremonies
Jeanhy Shim: Housing Lab Toronto (MC)
Jeanhy Shim is a strategic and creative 'thinker and doer' who is passionate about the opportunities of city building and the responsibilities of community building.
For the past 28 years, Jeanhy has been involved in the real estate development industry in Toronto, providing a wide range of strategic market analysis and development services to developers and financial institutions - from land acquisition, to strategic master-planning and product design, to sales and marketing strategy and project launch, to condo corporation management.
Currently, Jeanhy is working as strategic development consultant to industry clients through her own company, Housing Lab Toronto, and she is also working on several of her own initiatives to promote more affordable housing, more family housing and inter-generational housing, as well as more 'child-friendly' cities. In 2015, she opened a pilot project in downtown Toronto called 'Children's Discovery Centre' - a play-based 20,000 sq.ft. children's museum for 0-6 year olds that is now searching for a permanent home. And now, she is working on setting up a new not-for-profit development company - called Crosswalk Communities, to build 'rent-geared-to-income' affordable housing communities for that also offer on-site, wrap-around support services, such as childcare, mental health & wellness supports, skills training, youth programs, etc.
In our community, Jeanhy serves as a federal appointee on the Board of Directors at Waterfront Toronto, as well as the Berry Road Food Coop - a 'start-up' co-op grocery store in south Etobicoke. She is also founding Co-Chair of the new Equity Diversity & Inclusion Committee at Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto, and she also serves on the Community Safety & Wellness Committee of Black North Initiative. Previously, she also served on the Board of Woodgreen Community Services and as Board President for two large condominium corporations.
On a personal note, Jeanhy grew up as a first-generation immigrant in the Rexdale neighbourhood of north Etobicoke; and then spent her university years living & studying abroad in Montreal, Washington DC and London, England before returning to Toronto where she currently lives with her 11-year old daughter.
Modular Supportive Housing | TORONTO, ON
The City of Toronto is actively pursuing the emerging trend of modular housing as a construction method intended to rapidly respond to the acute issues of housing affordability--and an overburdened shelter system. As part of the Modular Housing Initiative, the City has selected 150 Harrison Street as the site for a project that will provide housing for those currently experiencing homelessness as they transition out of the shelter system. Unlike other jurisdictions in Canada, Toronto's Modular Housing Initiative will be a permanent fixture in the City. In the context of our current global pandemic, this initiative is a sustainable response that quickly and cost-effectively solves various social needs. 150 Harrison includes 54 units—two rows of nine homes (or "modules") mirrored across a single loaded corridor, stacked three high to fit within the existing context of residential building heights. The prefabricated modules are developed off-site and then transported to the site for assembly, thereby accelerating housing construction for vulnerable communities.
Place Griffintown | MONTREAL, QC
Located in the heart of downtown Montreal's transformed Griffintown neighbourhood, this project seeks to demonstrate how elements of resiliency and sustainability can be brought to the forefront of affordable housing. Place Griffintown will employ environmentally sustainable passive design strategies to maintain a high degree of energy-efficiency in all 55 housing units, ranging from one to four bedrooms. Designing for thermal comfort and flexibility will easily allow modifications, such as building performance upgrades over time. The goal is to ensure residents can independently manage and operate a compact housing project. Additionally, the project's commitment to monitoring and reporting the whole sustainable design process will ensure that successes and lessons learned from this "demonstration project" can be circulated for reference when building a similar affordable housing model in other jurisdictions.