Toronto-based Tapestry Community Capital has announced that housing groups across Canada are working together to raise $110 million through community bonds to secure affordable living options. So far, about 11 charitable, non-profit, and cooperative housing providers have joined the initiative to create or preserve more than 3,000 housing units.

Community bonds allow the issuer to set the terms, like price, interest rate, and duration, that suit their project and finances. Like conventional bonds, they pay interest and return the initial investment, but the funds go to social projects, with the not-for-profit entity guaranteeing them.

Following are the organizations set to raise the collective $110 million for affordable housing:

• Ontario-based nonprofit Redwood Park Communities plans to raise $10 million to create 146 new affordable housing units across Simcoe County.
• Toronto-based new nonprofit, The Inclusive Housing, plans to raise between $15 million and $20 million to build more than 1,000 new affordable housing units across Toronto and Kitchener.
• Indwell, an Ontario-based affordable housing provider, has already raised $5 million and plans to raise much more in its next campaign to expand affordable housing in South and Southwestern Ontario.
• Winnipeg-based Inuka Community Inc. is set to raise $3 million through Manitoba’s first-ever community bond campaign, for a 60-unit development. 
• Two land trusts; Muskoka Community Land Trust and Hogan’s Alley Society will raise a cumulative $12 million.
• The Housing Trust of Nova Scotia will be raising between $5 million and $10 million.
• Vancouver-based Hogan’s Alley Society and African Canadian Affordable Housing Village Coop will raise capital to provide culturally-informed housing to Black communities.
• United Housing plans to raise $750,000 for the construction of 10 new units of affordable housing and an additional $24 million in future.
• The Central Ontario Co-operative Housing Federation supports 41 housing cooperatives and plans to raise funds to build three affordable housing sites, focusing on investment from cooperatives in their network.
• Tapestry’s first affordable home ownership project; Habitat for Humanity Victoria will raise between $3 million and $4 million for a 14-unit stacked rowhouse development.
• More community bond issuers are to be announced soon.

National non-profit Tapestry is helping coordinate the funding efforts with financial support through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s Housing Supply Challenge. The group aims to raise $110 million, in addition to the $9 million Tapestry is already helping four groups fund, including the Kensington Market Community Land Trust in Toronto and Propolis Housing Cooperative in Kamloops, B.C. Tapestry says these efforts are crucial as affordable housing is becoming scarce and high financing costs make building new rentals more difficult.

Source: Oakville News