Housing Initiatives

Off-Line Resources

The Basic Idea

The provision of decent affordable housing is a very common approach to community development. It takes a number of forms but the concept is basically the same:

• Co-op Housing
• Habitat for Humanity
• Land Trusts
• Low rental apartment space
• New alternative building materials and styles
• Granny flats
• Zoning changes

One housing initiative which I know of that I have not seen written up is one that took place in the early 1970's in Red Lake Ontario. A number of houses were built for First Nations people coming out of the North. They were a form of rent to own. The deal was that whoever was the last renter got the mortgage. Rent was fixed to recover costs. It was an early version of Habitat in that if the first person who received the house stayed, they were able to keep the house. It would be interesting to go back and see what happened as they must be paid off by now. This is the sort of community development project which uses housing as the basis of action.

• Ferrazzi, Gabe. "Community / Social Housing" . Rural Community Development Introductory Modules,(WebCT class notes). Brandon University, Fall, 2001.Module # 7-b .
  Gabe's notes on housing initiatives as an approach to Community Development focus on First Nations (reservation) housing and their unique needs, Land Trusts, and Third Sector housing (social housing) in which the Federal Government was involved in the past but has withdrawn from now. He notes that he housing shortage can be more than a social and health issue in that it can hamper economic development as in the shortage of housing in Brandon for new shifts of workers at the plant.

On-line Resources