Our aspiration: A home for all
Welcome to the Centre
The Community Housing Transformation Centre is a new pan-Canadian non-profit organization. At the Centre, we believe everyone deserves a safe, affordable place to call home.
We’re working towards a more entrepreneurial and economically viable model of community housing—one that will serve the needs of our communities now and in the future.
We were founded in 2018 by a network of organizations that represent and serve the needs of Canada’s community-housing sector.
Our founding partners recognized the opportunity to build on existing expertise, networks and resources within our sector to drive transformation, sustainability and growth.
Our vision
Supporting a resilient, growing, sustainable, and inclusive community-housing sector.
Our mission
The Community Housing Transformation Centre works with housing organizations across the country to drive transformation, sustainability and growth in community housing. By working together, we can stabilize and grow the community-housing sector to meet the needs of people in this country. More specifically, our mission includes:
- To connect and partner with sector, service and community-housing providers to facilitate sector-wide transformation.
- To fund, support and build organizational capacity where gaps and needs exist.
The need
More than 1.7 million households across Canada are living in “core housing need”—this means they’re living in homes that are inadequate or unaffordable. In addition, 35,000 individuals are chronically homeless. Indigenous homelessness is in an even bigger crisis. A robust and sustainable community housing sector is necessary to address this challenge.
The impact
Community housing develops and maintains affordable homes in strong communities. Millions of individuals and families have benefited from the security and peace of mind offered by an affordable place to call home. This peace of mind helps people to reach their full potential.
The supply
Canada’s community-housing sector includes about 630,000 housing units. The National Housing Strategy includes a target to create 50,000 new units of community housing. But it’s not enough to build our way out of the housing crisis. The sector needs to adapt to new and evolving needs of residents, execute long-term viability plans, become more accessible and become more environmentally sustainable.
The condition
The physical condition of many community-housing assets requires urgent attention. Asset management is a priority across the sector as we deal with aging buildings and maintenance backlogs.
Your knowledge helps make the sector stronger: become an external reviewer!
We know how valuable your experience is to your local organization, but have you thought about how it can also help groups like yours across the country? Project grant applications submitted to the Centre are reviewed by sector colleagues just like you.
Peer reviewers use their experience and expertise as they study grant applications and offer constructive feedback and observations.
We’d love to recruit reviewers who have in-depth knowledge of
- their region(s)
- the housing sector in general
- one or more of our priority areas (asset management, governance, financial viability, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, Indigenous knowledge).
Peer reviewers are an essential part of the Centre’s grant-application process. Participation by people just like you helps create an ecosystem where individual knowledge is shared with an ever-growing circle of colleagues, helping nurture the growth and health of the entire community-housing sector.
If you want to know more, please write to us at info@centre.support or contact one of our program managers.
Or you can just click here and we can get started — building together today!
Our board
Jill Atkey
President
Lisa Oliveira
Vice president
Michelle Cooper-Iversen
Treasurer
Martina Jileckova
Secretary
Jacques Beaudoin
Administrator
Daniel Godin
Administrator
Kit Hickey
Administrator
Jaimee Gaunce
Administrator
Tim Ross
Administrator
Sandra Turner
Administrator
Our team
Our team brings together energetic and enthusiastic individuals who believe in the right to housing, the importance of supporting co-operatives and housing NPOs, and the opportunity to engage tenants to enable them to make informed choices about housing.
Funding
We’re funded by the National Housing Strategy.
Our members
Our members represent and serve the needs of Canada’s community-housing sector.
British Columbia Non–Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA)
BCNPHA is the association of non–profit housing providers in British Columbia. BCNPHA represents 434 non–profit housing providers (a total of 44,107 units) as well as one government provider with approximately 7,000 units. BCNPHA provides its services, programs, and resources to member and non–member providers throughout the province.
Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA)
The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association has 333 members including social housing providers, non–profit organizations, municipalities, all provincial/territorial housing departments, individuals, and businesses. CHRA, through its Indigenous Caucus, also works together for better housing for northern, rural, and urban First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples.
Confédération québécoise des coopératives d’habitation (CQCH)
The Confédération québécoise des coopératives d’habitation is the voice for co-op housing in Québec. There are approximately 1,300 housing co-ops in Québec and more than 30,000 units. The CQCH provides asset-management planning, financial viability and energy sustainability assistance and governance support to co-ops throughout Québec in both of Canada’s official languages.
Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada)
The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada is the unified voice of housing co-ops across Canada. CHF Canada represents over 900 housing co-ops, approximately 92,000 units, and a quarter-of-a-million Canadians. CHF Canada provides asset management, insurance, co-op support, education and advocacy in every province and territory.
Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia (CHF BC)
The Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia has 249 member co-ops with 13,540 co-op homes across British Columbia. CHF BC provides asset management planning, access to preferential financing, and commercial services, as well as education programs and advocacy for its members.
Housing Services Corporation (HSC)
The Housing Services Corporation provides programs and services to Ontario’s affordable-housing sector to sustain and preserve the building asset. Among HSC’s focuses are energy services to improve building efficiency and energy conservation, insurance-and-risk management and asset management.
Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA)
The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association represents more than 700 non-profit housing providers. ONPHA’s members house more than 400,000 people in 170,000 homes in 220 Ontario communities. ONPHA fills knowledge gaps through its original research and analysis. ONPHA provides education resources and provider support to its members.
Réseau Québécois des organismes sans but lucratif d’habitation (RQOH)
The Réseau québécois des OSBL d’habitation represents non-profit housing providers in Québec. The RQOH’s membership reach totals 942 providers and 38,915 units. It provides technical services and an insurance program as well as serving in an advocacy role for its members.
The Agency for Co-operative Housing (The Agency)
The Agency for Co-operative Housing is the not-for-profit administrator of federal co-operative housing programs in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and P.E.I. under agreement with CMHC. The Agency—among other responsibilities—reviews co-ops’ financials, approves replacement-reserve plans and assists co-ops in difficulty.
Sectoral Impact Projects
Develop new services, models or tools to help the sector build and manage affordable housing.
Local Projects
Sector Transformation Fund
Enhance the capacity of your local organization to provide affordable housing in a better way.
Community-Based Tenant Initiative
Develop projects that aim to engage tenants/co-op members in housing decisions that affect them.