Canadian Funding Corp: Affordable Housing at Pallister Court, Ottawa, Canada

Affordable housing is important to the ideals of Canadian Funding Corp. This post relates what happened after a vacant lot in Nepean’s Centrepointe neighbourhood was declared as surplus. Ottawa allocated it for affordable housing development and issued a call for proposals.

Canadian Funding Corp. lays out the sequence of events that followed. The City accepted NHC’s proposal to build a 62-unit complex that included 55, one- to four-bedroom townhouses and six apartments. Twenty-one units are rented at market rates; four are rented at 70 percent of the average market rent; and 37 are rent-geared-to-income, subsidized through the provincial Strong Communities Rent Supplement Program. The key partnership is a five-unit group home, leased on a 20 year renewal lease to Ottawa Foyers Partage, which provides support to Ottawa-area people with multiple or severe disabilities.

Canadian Funding Corp. is very pleased at how the group home is integrated into the rest of the development. NHC built a standard building and the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) covered the costs of the features required for the building to operate as a group home. The architects from Padolsky Associates Inc. designed an accessible building, with wide doorways, a wheel-in shower and direct exits from each of the bedrooms to the outside. NHC, with financial support from MCSS, the assistance of the architect providing services free of change, and the builder contributing materials at cost, constructed a community space underneath the group home. This common space is used for community meetings, art and drama classes, and a youth drop in program.

During the development and approvals process, NHC identified and answered objections and gathered broader support through community consultations—an approach consistent with NHC’s commitment to build only developments that mix rent-geared-to-income with market units, with the aim of developing healthier communities.

In what Canadian Funding Corp. considers a wise use of funds, Ottawa contributed $1.8 million. NHC secured another $1.8 million from CMHC and the Province of Ontario through the Affordable Housing Initiative for the $9.5 million project.

In July 2006, construction of Pallister Court was completed

Canadian Funding Corp. acknowledges CP, CMHC and private sources that assisted in providing this article to the Fast Company Blog.