Home Suite Hope was among 29 applicants across Canada to receive Stage 1 Funding for New Construction in the CMHC(Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)-led Housing Supply Challenge.
The Challenge aims to reduce barriers to housing supply and affordability with a goal that by 2030, everyone in Canada has a home they can afford and meets their needs.
The Challenge offers up to $300 million in funding for new ideas and solutions to help more people find an affordable place to call home.
HSH received funds to plan a prototype to determine Housing Needs and Affordability for Single-Parent-Led Families and is working on Stage 2 in hopes of winning a portion of $37.5M available to pay architects and construction project management companies to implement its ‘prototype.’
HSH Director of Development Krystal Valencia this week presented HSH’s Findings, Outcomes, and Next Steps.
Krystal noted HSH’s Homeward Bound Halton program has been 100% successful in breaking a mother’s dependency on social assistance. It offers wrap-around services to combat poverty, helping families transition out of homelessness or precarious housing with rental subsidies; connections to community resources (like mental health, healthy food, and childcare); and basic life skills. It also offers stabilized single-mothers a full-scholarship to a college diploma, followed by employment connections.
Studies show if you invest in a mother, it teaches children to become self-sufficient – our program is evidence of breaking generational poverty.
There is a common misconception that Halton is affluent so its residents are beyond poverty concerns. However, according to Community Development Halton (CDH) statistics and the Oakville Community Foundation Vital Signs, female lone-parent families living in poverty are on the rise and Halton has experienced the largest gap between wealthy and poor of any region in Canada (OCF, 2015).
While working on our Housing Supply solution, HSH is running an Affordable Housing Awareness campaign – to listen, advocate, and create opportunities to include single-parent families in the discussions on building affordable housing.
This includes creating a client-informed narrative of what “affordable housing” looks like for a single-parent family as well as advocating to private, public and non-profit partners, to create affordable housing in Halton – and creating affordable rental and ownership housing opportunities for families.
Connect with Krystal at krystalv@homesuitehope.org
Additional Resources:
Home Suite Hope Executive Director Dr. Sara Cumming on Cogeco TV’s Oakville Matters episode Affordable & Assisted Housing