Scaling up of Non Profit Housing in Ottawa

On Wednesday June 14^th, a sector event was held regarding the “Scaling up of Non-Profit Housing in Ottawa”. This event was held in partnership with Cahdco, the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa and The Ottawa Community Land Trust (OCLT).  The discussion built on the momentum created by the “Scaling up of Non-Profit Housing in Ottawa” report, which was created by Dr. Carolyn Whitzman, PhD, and the Alliance with Cahdco’s support.

The discussion included presentations from sector leaders such as Katie Burkholder Harris, the executive director from Alliance to End Homelessness, Tiffany Duzita, the Executive Director of the Community Land Trust in British Columbia (CLT), Graeme Hussey, president of Cahdco, and Mike Bulthuis the Executive Director of OCLT. Finally, the session was concluded with a breakout activity where attendees discussed land, money, and capacity.

Graeme Hussey from Cahdco began the session by discussing Toolbox+ by Cahdco and the basics of developing affordable housing. Mike Bulthuis spoke about the work the OCLT is doing to acquire their first property in Ottawa. Finally, Tiffany Duzita discussed CLT’s organizational growth, and governance structure, as well as CLT’s successes in creating partnerships with coops and other social enterprises, creating communities, and receiving funding

After these presentations by sector leaders, the attendees broke into smaller groups to discuss either land, money, or capacity. Questions discussed include: “How do we unlock government land for affordable housing?” “Could we envision organizations partnering in the development of land?”, and “How can we attract new capital to projects?”.

Cahdco plans to host monthly events starting in September related to scaling up the development of more affordable housing in Ottawa. A special thanks to Katie Burkholder Harris, Mike Bulthuis, Tiffany Duzita, and their respective teams for a successful event.