Habitat for Humanity looks to build 'up'.
Landlord increases number of units for housing group.
By Laura Severs Business Edge
A new affordable housing push could mean more units closer to Canada's downtown cores.
Instead of concentrating on single-family homes, Habitat for Humanity Canada is looking to build upward rather than outward.
Their plan is to update the traditional single-family home Habitat model to include partnering with residential developers planning highrises or larger projects such as urban villages - developments that include a mixture of highrises, lowrises, townhouses as well as retail and services.
"The traditional poster child for a Habitat for Humanity house is a single-family home with a white-picket fence," says David Hughes, president and CEO of Waterloo, Ont.-based Habitat for Humanity Canada, a national, non-profit, faith-based organization that mobilizes volunteers and community partners to build affordable housing and promote home ownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty.
"That model and picture is out of date, but often that is what people associate with what Habitat builds."
Under Habitat's vision, developers would increase the density of their projects by adding storeys in low- or highrises that would accommodate a varying number of affordable housing units, which would then be made available to Habitat.
Habitat would bring in its own construction crews to work on the individual units once the developer has erected the building.
The group says developers win because they have units on higher floors that they can sell or rent for a premium, while families in need of affordable housing benefit because it will be cheaper for Habitat to get more affordable units onto the market quickly.
"Increasingly, we realize if we're going to be serious in solving affordable housing problems we need to find economies of scale just the way commercial builders do," says Hughes. "It's forcing us to be more innovative and flexible towards where and how we build."
Habitat has no plans to abandon the single-family model it builds across Canada. But Hughes says this strategy will allow families to be placed into homes more quickly, including areas it couldn't access before, such as downtowns where land was either unavailable or too expensive.
One of the first examples of how this new Habitat vision is beginning to unfold is in Edmonton, where redevelopment is about to change the Strathearn Heights apartment complex. Brought together by community advocates, Habitat is now working with Edmonton developer The Nearctic Group.
The $650-million community redevelopment will include 1,750 housing units, with four towers ranging in height from 20 to 23 storeys, approximately 14 buildings ranging in height from six to eight storeys with townhouses at street level, as well as 40,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Initial sitework is due to begin in the spring of 2009, with the first units ready for occupancy in late 2010 or early 2011.
Nearctic, which has been the landlord at Strathearn Heights for more than 50 years, says it wanted to be a responsible landlord when it introduced its plan for the site and the buildings that are already there.
Nearctic president and CEO David Kent says the Habitat vision dovetailed with the company's own for the property.
"At no cost to the city, we were given a group to work with who had a track record and a wonderful model for home ownership that could further reduce the cost of housing and get it to the people who need it," Kent says.
While the City of Edmonton's affordable housing program calls for five per cent of the project (88 units) to be set aside for lower and moderate income earners, Nearctic has actually increased the number of units it will make available to Habitat by 62, for a total of 150.
Separate from its involvement with Habitat, Nearctic is looking at setting aside 200 to 300 apartments for existing tenants who want to remain - based on their tenure there and financial need.
"We're very excited to work with Habitat," adds Kent. "They have a very good model for giving people a hand up who are working very hard, but for the cost of housing aren't getting somewhere."
He notes that Strathearn, considered suburbia when it was developed decades ago, is now more of an inner-city community even though it is separated from downtown by the North Saskatchewan River. "It's very much part of the downtown," says Kent.
For Habitat's Hughes, the Strathearn project is one example of how it can fill the affordable housing need without contributing to urban sprawl.
"I truly believe that much of Habitat for Humanity's growth in the future will come from building 'up' not 'out,' with more of our housing units being made available in or around highrise developments," he says.
"By partnering with developers, we can help them get zoning for larger-scale projects - and therefore greater profits - if they are in turn willing to forfeit some of their units to Habitat for Humanity."
Meanwhile, housing experts agree that for cities to prosper, they must ensure that they have housing for a wide-ranging population demographic.
"Places that have affordable housing and a mix of housing will attract investment," says Sharon Chisholm, executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, a national non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and strengthening the social housing sector.
"Our argument is that by investing in housing, you're really investing in the economy, in better health, in reduced hospital costs, in an increased rate of completion of high school, in lower teenage pregnancies, in having workers available for jobs, in making cities and places more competitive on the global scene," adds Chisholm.
And that, says Kent, is also what Nearctic has in mind.
(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)
