In 2019, the City of Edmonton launched the Affordable Housing Investment Program (AHIP) to address urgent funding gaps and catalyze affordable housing development and rehabilitation. The AHIP positions the City as the first investor in affordable developments, providing up-front support that allows housing providers to mitigate risk and attract additional funding at the provincial or federal level. For every dollar the City contributes to the program, it secures approximately four more from other governments. The AHIP was designed to be flexible, aligning with changing federal and provincial priorities. Its evaluation criteria mirror those of the CMHC Co-Investment Fund, making it easier for projects to compete across multiple funding sources. A housing reserve account provides funds pre-approved by Council, so City staff can negotiate quickly with provincial and federal government partners – and can reallocate money annually in response to shifts in those higher-level government programs. Since its launch, the program has distributed more than $125 million and supported the creation of over 2,400 affordable units. Edmonton’s stock of social and affordable housing has grown by nearly 33%, from 13,536 units in 2019 to over 18,000 in 2025. The AHIP positions the City to achieve its long-term goal of residents having access to affordable housing in all parts of the city.

Brique par Brique is a non-profit organization established in 2016 to respond to rapid gentrification and displacement in Parc-Extension, one of Montreal’s most diverse neighbourhoods. The organization operates under a dual mandate of building affordable community housing and spaces and cultivating collective action and local leadership through community development and cultural programming. To obtain capital funding for its work, Brique par Brique launched its first community bond campaign in 2018, raising over $360,000 in nine months from 40 community investors. Community bonds are guaranteed fixed-rate bonds provided by a community issuer to a non-profit borrower. They offer an innovative pathway for non-profit and community-led housing providers to finance projects in a way that keeps wealth within communities and strengthens community organizing. Funds raised from the bonds can then be used for site acquisition and development, to leverage additional funding, or to pay down higher-interest debts. With these funds and some additional support from the Government of Québec through the (now-abolished) AccèsLogis program, Brique par Brique acquired land and is constructing a 31-unit social housing complex with the aim of renting out units by 2027 at 25% of household income or less. They also used some of the funds to open a cultural centre in 2021. Community financing offered Brique par Brique a launchpad for its affordable housing project, as well as an opportunity to build relationships with community investors and create support for future social-purpose projects.

The Killick Ecovillage Co-operative in Portugal Cove-St. Phillip’s, N.L., is a cohousing village that has worked to address many of the challenges that smaller communities face when creating a Community-Led Housing (CLH) project. First among these is obtaining the necessary knowledge base, resources, and funding. The project began with a group of individuals with a vision who pooled resources to buy a 58-acre heritage farm. Once built, the village will be a 51-home sustainable, multi-generational, mixed-income community. Founders combined resident investment, grants, and external financing to build a shared foundation for the project. Resident investment in the village makes the project unique among CLH models available in Canada. While traditional models such as co-ops and CLTs provide residents with decision-making power in the development of their community, the residents are still leasing the land from a larger organization that manages ownership. Members of the Killick Ecovillage, in contrast, will have long-term leases on their own homes, with the autonomy akin to home ownership, as part of Canada’s first Mutual Home Ownership Society (MHOS). At Killick, the governance model is intended to foster continued community engagement. From its inception, the resident community was shaped through a participatory design process, with workshops that invited brainstorming and discussion about the members’ ideal future together. This shared governance framework sustains community decision-making while ensuring that operations, services, and long-term plans remain aligned with the community’s values and needs.

Founded in 2023, mddl has established itself as an expert advisor in middle housing – that is, housing at a scale between single-family homes and large apartment buildings. Its aim is to bridge the critical knowledge gap that many small-scale and new-entry developers, including homeowners, experience in the process of delivering middle housing. Combining education with planning and municipal policy innovation, mddl provides a hub for knowledge and support. Its mddl School, a one-day in-person course on the fundamentals of delivering middle housing, has now reached over 1,400 participants in five cities across Canada. Spring 2026 saw the launch of mddl U, a certificate program hosted within the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, which provides a start-to-finish overview of the missing middle housing development process. The mddl Masters and mddl Accelerator services offer more personalized technical assistance and expert mentorship for middle housing providers with projects already underway. Through its educational and advisory services, mddl empowers developers, citizens, housing providers, and municipal staff to create more middle housing in scalable, sustainable, and simplified ways. Every place has its own champions for middle housing; expertise hubs like the ones mddl creates can concentrate and mobilize the experts and resources that already exist within the Canadian middle housing sector, empowering local actors to get their shovels in the ground and turn their plans into much-needed finished homes

Construction is a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions (39% globally), with cement production alone accounting for about 8% of global carbon dioxide output. The construction industry also faces deep labour challenges: many workers encounter mental health and safety risks, while women and other underrepresented groups remain largely excluded from leadership positions in the trades. Tooketree Passive Homes, a modular housing developer based in Muskoka, Ontario, was founded in 2018 to address both of these issues, as well as the high cost of housing. Central to the Tooketree model is the development of sustainable, ecological, efficient, and durable (SEED) panels, which sequester carbon and insulate the building so that it uses 90% less energy to heat and cool than a conventional home. The standardized design allows Tooketree to guarantee fixed pricing and deliver homes with higher energy performance than typical site-built construction, where efficiency features are often cut to save time and money. To date, Tooketree has sequestered 105,000 kg of carbon through SEED panels, created nearly 56,000 hours of living-wage employment, and delivered 65 housing units. Since 2022, it has provided nearly 5,000 hours of on-site training to Indigenous women and employed more than 30 women in trades. Tooketree’s is helping to reshape the construction industry into one that has a lower carbon footprint, is more inclusive, and prioritizes collaboration. By proving that sustainable, affordable housing can also strengthen local economies and diversify the labour force, Tooketree demonstrates that tackling the housing crisis and the climate crisis can – and must – be pursued together.

Penticton lies at the heart of the Okanagan region in the south of British Columbia. The region’s temperate climate, beautiful lakes, and award-winning wineries have made it a popular tourist destination in recent years. The community of 37,000 has also seen rapid population growth in the last decade: between 2016 and 2021, the city’s population grew three times as fast as projected in its most recent Official Community Plan, in part due to an influx of remote workers during the pandemic and a growing workforce supporting the tourism industry. This growth has put pressure on the community’s housing stock, with the result that housing prices spiked by 50% in five years. 

Imagine a single program that creates meaningful employment opportunities, revitalizes derelict properties, and makes homeownership a possibility for local low-income families. It exists in downtown Sault Ste. Marie thanks to the Affordable Home Ownership Program (AHOP), an innovative partnership between the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB).  

Sault Ste. Marie is the third-largest city in Northern Ontario, with a population of 72,000. It is experiencing a high level of housing pressure and a growing wait for social housing despite its comparatively affordable homes. At the same time, there are many abandoned properties downtown, which contribute to lower property values and raise concerns about safety among neighbours. More recently, the city’s economy has also suffered in the wake of U.S. tariffs on the steel industry, which have resulted in widespread layoffs and unemployment despite investments (from both the private sector and the federal government) aimed at shoring up the sector.  

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has the potential to improve access to opportunity and incentivize sustainable growth, but transit developments across Canada have often led to speculation from rising land value, displacing vulnerable residents and making it difficult to sustain and build affordable and non-market housing. The Canadian Alliance for Transit Connected Housing (CATCH) is a new approach to TOD that places affordability and inclusion at the centre. CATCH originated from a CMHC lab led by Social Innovation Canada in partnership with CMHC, the City of Hamilton, the Hamilton Community Foundation, non-market housing providers, and other stakeholders, who co-designed a solution that aligns transit investments with long-term affordability. It is anchored by the CATCH Fund – Canada’s first transit-oriented affordable housing fund. The CATCH Fund blends public and private capital, complemented by municipal grants, to provide flexible financing needed to preserve and create affordable housing near transit. The $18.7M fund is expected to launch in early 2026 with a pipeline of projects ready for investment. The Hamilton lab also influenced municipal policy, informing zoning changes, rental protections, and the city’s new Rental Housing Protection By-law to preserve existing stock and protect tenants. CATCH aims to scale this success nationally, develop a catalogue of best practices, convene local collaboratives, and apply proven social finance models.

Balanced Supply of Housing (BSH) is a collaborative network of academic researchers and community partners based at the University of British Columbia that conducts research to generate and mobilize knowledge for a more equitable housing system. BSH advances long-term affordable housing solutions by supporting community land trusts (CLTs) that remove land from speculative markets and place it under community control. Partnering with CLTs across Canada, BSH funds research, policy development, and land acquisitions that protect affordability, prevent displacement, and promote equity – especially for marginalized communities. Evidence from BSH-supported studies, such as the Parkdale Tower Rental Housing Study in Toronto’s west end, has informed public acquisition programs and enabled the successful preservation and creation of affordable housing, demonstrating that CLTs are a viable and effective tool in addressing the housing crisis. Through more than forty projects focused on innovative land practices and alternatives to the financialization of housing, BSH builds the capacity of community-led housing initiatives. Projects include policy reports, a profile series on Canadian CLTs, and community capacity-building initiatives to enhance the delivery of affordable housing. This important work highlights the power of CLTs to transform housing from a commodity to a shared community asset.

Homeway Benefits is a British Columbia-based company that is redefining workforce benefits by making a path toward homeownership a standard part of employee packages. As home ownership rates continue to decline and younger Canadians have fewer pathways to buy homes, Homeway partners with employers to help employees build financial stability through an innovative savings model. In this program, 5–10% of each employee’s paycheque is matched by the employer and invested into a fund, allowing employees to accumulate between $15,000 and $30,000 toward a downpayment over a three- to four-year term. Partnered with the North Peace Community Foundation to manage the fund, Homeway Benefits piloted the model with the Fort St. John Association for Community Living (FSJACL) and is now working to expand it more broadly. While this program was designed for rural and northern communities, the concept is adaptable for urban centres; Homeway Benefits is currently in communication with Key, a company offering 2.5%-downpayment mortgages in Toronto and Vancouver, to explore potential collaboration. By turning the dream of homeownership into a shared journey between employers and employees, Homeway Benefits helps individuals build lasting equity and stability, while their employers benefit from improved retention and loyalty.

As Toronto makes strides toward building affordable housing, some of the barriers to more rapid progress are related to information access: siloed data, inconsistent intergovernmental coordination, and highly technical language that makes it difficult for residents to understand or engage with development process. Seeing this as a problem that civic tech could address, housing advocates launched HousingNowTO in December 2018 as a volunteer-run, open-source platform to bridge the gap between housing professionals and the public. By translating complex data into clear, accessible information through Google maps, photographs, videos, and data visualization, HousingNowTO equips residents with the tools to understand and evaluate affordable housing projects on government-owned lands. Its mapping portal and social media channels function as a framework for public transparency and accountability, offering data-driven viability analysis of proposed sites and reducing misinformation. The platform has delivered tangible results, including adding thousands of additional rental units to the City’s original redevelopment plans. The organization is also expanding the community of housing supporters by mentoring over a hundred university students in housing data advocacy. Recognized as a finalist in the 2024 World Smart Cities Awards, HousingNowTO shows how open-government and civic-tech models can be scaled to empower communities and strengthen public accountability in housing delivery.

At time when rural Canada has its own housing crisis, Innovation Building Group (IBG) has pioneered a new approach that delivers affordable, high-performance, climate-resilient family homes. IBG’s approach combines modular construction with advanced building technologies to create durable, “energy-ready” homes – that is, homes designed and built to be adaptable to evolving energy standards without costly retrofits, reducing long-term costs and environmental impact. By integrating hydronic heat pumps, non-load-bearing composite cladding, insulated concrete-form foundations, and energy-recovery ventilators, IBG has reduced both construction and operating costs for homes that can sustain comfortable temperatures in the Canadian climate. These homes eliminate reliance on natural gas, using airtight envelopes and high-performance windows to boost resilience and energy efficiency. This model is designed for replication across Canada’s smaller towns, offering Canadian Home Builders’ Association builders a practical path to transition from traditional single-family homes to compact, community-oriented developments. The Oso project in Golden, B.C. – an award-winning net-zero energy-ready hub – demonstrates IBG’s commitment to revitalizing rural centers through sustainable design. IBG is shaping the future of Canada’s missing-middle housing with purpose-built solutions that serve both people and the planet.

Many cities have some amount of vacant and underused land: largely empty parking lots, remnants of low-density sprawl, abandoned properties that haven’t been taken up by new owners, and so on. In British Columbia, the Rapid Housing Foundation (RHF) is working to turn over an estimated 84,000 vacant and viable parcels into modular row housing for seniors and low-income residents. RHF plans to install factory-built units in under four months by using temporary foundations. On the financing side, the plan is to lease residential lots rather than purchase land, and to make units that qualify for British Columbia’s shelter-rate assistance. The rental revenue guaranteed from British Columbia’s rent subsidies, combined with RHF's low per-unit costs (about $100,000), eliminate the need for government capital grants by making it easier to secure private financing from funders like BMO, Vancity, and RBC, so each development will be financially viable. While RHF will have to find alternatives for British Columbia’s rent subsidies when it expands to other provinces, its model for quickly and cheaply building housing on existing vacant land can be adopted throughout the country.

Founded to tackle Canada’s housing crisis – particularly the “missing middle” of infill mid-rise and affordable housing – Assembly Corp is transforming how housing gets built in Canada through mass timber panelized construction. Traditional construction methods are often slow, costly, and unpredictable, making it difficult for governments, non-profits, and developers to deliver accessible homes at the pace and scale required. Assembly Corp’s approach is to treat buildings like products. They design standardized, modular mass timber and light-frame wood panels, manufacture them off-site, and assemble them on-site. This sustainable, modular approach cuts project timelines in half, reduces carbon emissions by up to 60%, and brings predictability to a process long defined by delays and overruns. By leveraging renewable Canadian wood, Assembly Corp ensures high-quality, low-waste construction while exceeding energy code requirements by 20% – and also enhancing resident well-being through nature-based design. With a focus on human-scale density and low-carbon communities, Assembly Corp is proving that building faster can also mean building smarter, greener, and more inclusively.

In addition to improving construction efficiency and sustainability, modular solutions can also address urgent social needs by delivering supportive housing and site services for people with nowhere else to go. The “sleep cabin community” is a supportive housing model that creates clusters of 20 to 50 furnished cabins surrounding a central community centre offering 24/7 staff support and wraparound services. In Waterloo, The Working Centre operates a 50-cabin site equipped with electricity, heating, and cooling, providing mental health and addiction supports, as well as helping residents transition to permanent housing. In Peterborough, the Elizabeth Fry Society manages a similar 50-unit Modular Bridge Housing Community as part of the city’s Interim Housing Solutions strategy, connecting residents to supports and long-term housing. Since 2019, about 140 cabins have been installed across Ontario, helping to reduce homelessness and save lives. Although these projects often face initial community resistance, many neighbours ultimately become advocates – volunteering and supporting the initiative, demonstrating how cabin communities embody compassion and possibility.

Located in London, Ontario, in the historic Victoria Hospital Lands neighbourhood, Village Soho brings together six non-profit housing developers to create nearly 700 mixed-income apartments, with over 30% designed to be barrier-free. The initiative is a response to the deepening housing crisis in the city, where over 2,000 residents face homelessness and 7,200 wait for subsidized housing. Convened by the London Community Foundation, Village SoHo brings six non-profit housing developers together to address the issue, aiming to create a place that fosters strong, safe and accessible community while celebrating the neighbourhood's rich history. Indwell is a founding member of the Village SoHo Alliance, which will restore two heritage buildings on site to create 138 new apartments. These restorations preserve architectural legacy while offering modern, affordable homes with wraparound supports. Construction began in fall 2023, with full completion expected by summer 2028. This collaborative model demonstrates how non-profit leadership, municipal support, and community fundraising can transform underused land into inclusive, sustainable housing.

Based in the Greater Toronto Area, Reena’s intentional community housing model reimagines housing as a foundation for dignity, autonomy, health, and social inclusion by integrating care, accessibility, and community under one roof. Through three purpose-built residences – the Sandy Keshen Reena Residence (2012), Lou Fruitman Reena Residence (2021), and upcoming Frankfort Family Reena Residence (2026) – Reena provides homes for seniors and for individuals with developmental disabilities and physical and mental health challenges. Each residence provides essential services such as medical care, mental health supports, life-skills training, and personal care, enabling residents to live independently within inclusive, mixed communities rather than segregated facilities. This model has potential to help alleviate Ontario’s long-standing shortage of supportive housing – over 40,000 individuals are on waitlists, with the result that many people who would do well in supportive housing are institutionalized, unnecessarily hospitalized, or homeless. Developed in partnership with Ontario Health and a number of organizations such as March of Dimes and Safehaven, the model brings multiple care providers together as a single multidisciplinary team. By uniting housing and health-care systems that have long operated in silos, Reena’s model delivers co-ordinated, cost-effective support that is 10 to 13 times less expensive per day than institutional care. Building on this success, Reena currently chairs the Intentional Community Consortium (ICC), which works to solve the housing crisis for those with developmental disabilities.

A shortage of accessible housing, particularly residential homes suitable for people with mobility challenges, severely limits the rental and homeownership options of many individuals with accessibility needs. The No Limits Collective (NLC) incentivizes homeowners and small investors to build accessible rental or investment properties, offering free property management services – including tenant placement and issue resolution – for homes that meet a basic accessibility standard. Red Plain Developments, NLC’s licensed development subsidiary, exclusively builds barrier-free homes while also pushing municipal bylaws and construction technologies to increase the value and investment potential of accessible housing. NLC is endorsed by Spinal Cord Injury Alberta (SCI) and Voices of Albertans with Disabilities (VAD), and both these organizations serve as NLC’s tenant placement partners, matching available homes with the residents who need them most. Homes built through the program are listed in a private online directory accessible only to trusted partners, ensuring efficient placement and relieving pressure on public and communal facilities. The approach is scalable across communities, and the program empowers vetted “No Limits Builders” to offer the program to their clients, expanding access to barrier-free homes and generating meaningful community impact.

In a rapidly growing Eastern Ontario community, the Municipality of North Grenville is experimenting with creating more missing middle housing through its Additional Residential Unit (ARU) Initiative, which encourages the building of self-contained units on properties that already have a primary residence. Also called “accessory dwelling units (ADUs),” or “in-law suites,” these secondary units can accommodate extended family or guests, or be rented out. ARUs contribute to intergenerational living arrangements, can create extra income for homeowners, and are an excellent option for the efficient and gentle densification of existing communities. Made possible by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Housing Accelerator Fund, the ARU Initiative offers North Grenville homeowners a one-time grant of $25,000 and four municipally approved detached ARU design options free to use for those eligible to build an additional unit on their properties. The municipality also reformed its zoning to allow ARUs as of right in many areas. In just over a year, the results have been striking: with the combined impact of the zoning reforms and the new initiative, over 30 new ARUs have been developed across the municipality, and 10 grants have been awarded. The municipality has continually improved the initiative: based on lessons learned from academia and community feedback, it has adjusted designs to lower costs, explored panelized construction options, and developed landlord and tenant education programs. The ARU Initiative is a model for expanding housing options through thoughtful experimentation, building capacity in North Grenville as the township transitions from its rural roots into a more urbanized centre.

A number of online rental platforms post listings of accommodations in Toronto, but the Toronto Home Zone (THZ) is unique in the support it offers renters seeking secure and affordable housing in Canada’s largest city. The online platform, created and hosted by the Toronto Housing Society, offers active moderation and human verification of its rental listings in order to protect its users from scams, discriminatory practices, illegal lease terms, and unwarranted price escalations. A volunteer-run digital network, THZ connects renters, roommates, subletters, and landlords, as well as offering templates for subletting and roommate agreements, rent receipts, and other tools for building knowledge of fair rental practices. A rolling 120-day Live Market Insights tool gives a picture of true market prices undistorted by false or underpriced listings. THZ’s strict community conduct rules facilitate a social infrastructure that increases transparency and protects its members from exploitative practices. THZ volunteers reviewed over 12,500 listings in 2025 alone, rejecting thousands that failed to meet community standards for fairness, transparency, or legitimacy. The platform’s trust-centred approach has attracted 150,000 members to date, demonstrating that bottom-up community action can improve safety and transparency within existing systems. Looking ahead, THZ is actively evolving to decentralize the platform and use lessons from its collected data to create a model ready for replicating in other communities throughout Ontario.