Some Good News from Beyond Housing
An affordable housing project to support women and families
During the fall, I shared a series that I wrote for The Community Edition about the lack of emergency shelter space for women and gender-diverse individuals (The final article in that series will be shared on Citified next month). It was discouraging to learn of the minimal supports available to unhoused women and gender-diverse folks in our region.
So, hopefully today’s story serves as an antidote to those grim statistics.
It has been 6 years in the works, but Beyond Housing (formerly MennoHomes) is closer than ever to building its next project which will provide an affordable housing option for women and women-led families in Waterloo Region.
The plan for this project began when Dorothy Hallman, mother of Jim Hallman, wanted to gift her home to be used for affordable housing in some way. Dorothy passed away in 2021 and her property was officially donated to Beyond Housing last year. The half acre lot at 887 Frederick St in Kitchener will soon become home to twenty stacked townhomes.
The property is now legally owned by Beyond Housing which is important because accessing (affordable) land is often the largest stumbling block in creating permanent, affordable housing. Beyond Housing has been fortunate to have been gifted land for its projects. “If you don’t own the land, you’ll never get funding,” Beyond Housing executive director Dan Driedger said.
Beyond Housing prefers to work in partnership with existing agencies and organizations. Aware of the need for housing for women and families, Beyond Housing reached out to Jennifer Hutton at the Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region (WCSWR) and essentially asked, “What do you need?” Her response was that they need “a little bit of everything, actually.”
Stacked townhouses were selected for this project despite some challenges with this style of housing as it tends to come in a cookie cutter format, often offering just 2 bedroom unit layouts. Given the clientele is expected to include families, 3 and 4 bedroom units were desired, as well as units that were accessible (this is important not only to provide accessible housing for those who need it, but also to better secure funding from funders such as CMHC).
Once completed, this project will have 20 units: four 2 bedrooms, twelve 3 bedrooms, and two each of 1 and 4 bedroom units. There will also be a playground and a security plan established.
The most recent Beyond Housing newsletter says that “the focus will be to provide permanent affordable housing for women and their children who have experienced domestic violence and are living in emergency shelter or transitional housing.” However, it won’t only be WCSWR clientele living here because Beyond Housing has found that serving more than a single demographic works best.
This new project is estimated to cost $8.6 million and a $2 million capital campaign was launched at Beyond Housing’s AGM yesterday. However, there has been a ‘quiet campaign’ of sorts leading up to yesterday’s campaign launch and Beyond Housing has already received $1.3 million in donations and pledges towards that goal. The gift of land from Dorothy Hallman also represents nearly $1.5 million in equity. The Region of Waterloo has committed just over $1 million from the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative (this funding comes from the Province) and the City of Kitchener is also providing a grant worth $200,000 from its pilot project, the Not-for-Profit Affordable Rental and Co-op Housing Incentive. That leaves the project with nearly 50% of the total cost accounted for, with the hopes that CMHC will fund the remaining amount.
If all goes as planned, there will hopefully be shovels in the ground for this project by late Spring 2025, with residents moving in by 2026. While there are still gaps in housing locally, I’m thankful that organizations like Beyond Housing and Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region are partnering together to create much needed affordable housing for women and families in our community!
If you’re interested in donating to this project, click here.
Update since publishing: “The townhomes will have rents set to the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) shelter allowance, the release noted, which equals $582 per month for a one-bedroom apartment, ranging up to $1,074 per month for a four-bedroom townhouse.” More here.
Community Resource:
If you have ever run into someone on the street who may need to access supports such as food, shelter, or safety from extreme temperatures, this site might be helpful. There’s also a ‘pocket card’ you can print off to keep handy for when you may need it.
Have Your Say:
Have you heard about ‘High Performance Development Standards’? They are a set of standards planned for new development applications in Waterloo Region which embed the energy transition and climate resilience into the planning approvals process.
WR Community Energy (WRCE) is working to develop the High-Performance Development Standards (HPDS) and is offering a number of community sessions in February where you can learn more and share your thoughts.
This is such good news! There is a great need for housing to support women and women led families. I am so excited to see the number of 3 bdrm units! If we could see more donations of land, that would be transformational! Mrs Hallman showed us another way forward.
This is indeed good news!!