HSH looks to 2024 - Affordable Housing Campaign: Partners in Change for Housing:

Creating affordable housing – that’s why HSH held its inaugural Home for Good Gala in 2023 and it set the stage for us for 2024.

Due to the rising cost of living, inflation and exorbitant hikes in rent, even after graduating from HSH programming our participants could still be staring down poverty.

HSH has been watching this happen – single parents with employable skills and solid incomes are facing $2000 to $3000 in monthly rental costs.

HSH has taken action. Our new gala event not only welcomed home pilot Callum Wallace whose 2023 Flight for Hope raised awareness and funds for affordable housing, it also launched our Affordable Housing Campaign: Partners in Change for Housing.

It offers community members the opportunity to provide sponsorship of the $14,400 gap that currently exists in rental costs for an HSH family in a year.

The Partners in Change for Housing plan to create more affordable housing here at home in Halton, has short, medium and long-term goals.

Home Suite Hope has a three-pillar approach to address housing needs for our program participants: renter, partner, and owner, according to HSH Executive Director Sara Cumming. This is a vision that starts with addressing the immediate needs with up-front rental investment, then collaborating with partners for progressive options, and eventually moving towards self-sufficiency through independent ownership.

First Pillar: Front-Loaded Rental

In the front-loaded model, HSH would pre-pay rent in existing buildings to ensure participants are housed today. While this option requires a substantial up-front investment, it essentially buys affordability in today’s challenging housing marketplace. With our participants’ housing secured, this option offers us greater flexibility to work on longer-term housing initiatives to respond to an ever-volatile affordable housing market. AND, it prevents Halton’s invisible homeless from suddenly becoming very visible.

Second Pillar: Collaborative Partner Model

There are a number of builders and other organizations that are willing and interested in partnering with HSH to secure blocks of housing units in new builds. This medium-term initiative is ideal for HSH programming as it helps ensure a supply of units for program participants, with the added benefit of co-locating them in a central location to create a sense of community for our participants. This model is ideal, but it is dependent on the timeline of new construction starts. HSH is already collaborating with partners on a project in Georgetown and we look forward to moving our participants into the new building in the very near future.

Third Pillar: Self-Sufficiency

Home ownership is one of the best ways to address lack of available and affordable housing. HSH’s longer-term goal is to own properties or a complex that offers participant families safe, clean and secure housing.

This model will be the most challenging option: it requires working with existing partners and identifying new ones; it requires a committed fundraising campaign; and it requires support from our community.

If you are a member of the community interested in getting involved, please reach out for information or to donate by contacting HSH Executive Director Sara Cumming at sarac@homesuitehope.org or on her direct line at 289-213-5787.