Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has a great section on their website that features links to detailed profiles on some of Canada's most unique and successful affordable housing projects. The important distinction is made between projects involving municipalities and those funded by entrepreneurs.
Interesting approaches that stand out on the municipal side of things include Whistler's Employee Housing Service Charge Fund, which "takes a trust fund approach to providing affordable house for the community’s permanent tourism employees." The service charge applies to all new commercial, industrial and tourist developments, and attempts to make sure that as large business projects bring more employees (a.k.a. "people") to Whistler, they have a place to stay for a reasonable rate.
The CMHC website represents the private sector's best efforts as well, and one of the coolest projects comes from King Street Holdings' Dalhousie Church Lofts project (pictured above) in Brantford, Ont. The vacant River of Life Baptist church was converted into a 17-unit apartment complex at a pricetag of $1.5 million. A one-bedroom unit in the Dalhousie Church Lofts rents for $633 including utilities.
The lone Calgary entry featured on both lists comes from Boardwalk Rental Communities, who offer "a mixture of rent freezes, one-time waiver of an increase, or even rent reductions [to] keep eligible tenants paying less than 40% of their income on housing."
Hopefully, more Calgary developers will take the site's advice and "learn how these projects came to life — use them to get inspired and explore the possibilities."
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