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The National Housing Strategy (NHS) offers a number of programs to support innovative solutions to housing problems. One of these programs is the NHS Demonstrations Initiative (or “Demonstrations,” for short).
Demonstrations provides funding to projects that feature innovative ways of improving the performance, viability and effectiveness of affordable housing.
Promoting innovation in affordable housing
Demonstrations provides a platform to create and share real-world data and information on affordable housing. Projects must feature cutting-edge, innovative technologies, practices, programs, policies or strategies. They must offer solutions to affordable housing problems. These solutions must be market-ready (or nearly) and must be able to be replicated.
Projects must also align with the NHS’ priority areas and focus on one or more of the NHS’ priority populations. The projects chosen are awarded from $25,000 to a maximum of $250,000.
The goal of Demonstrations: to foster a culture of innovation in the affordable housing sector, so it can better meet Canada’s housing needs.
Some successes from 2018’s selection process
Successful applicants from 2018 include Société Logique, a Quebec-based non-profit and leader in universal design, and Indwell, an Ontario-based non-profit organization.
Société Logique is taking a fire-damaged building and rebuilding one of the apartments as a showcase of universal design features. The project is named Apartment 303 and will feature things like manoeuvring areas, open spaces and accessible bathroom facilities, faucets and fixtures.
All of these universal design elements will allow the unit to be lived in by all types of residents. Apartment 303 received $57,484 from Demonstrations to share their approach.
Indwell’s project, meanwhile, will showcase its unique way of offering supportive housing for people with disabilities. The project involves 3 multi-unit residential buildings in various stages of construction. Each will be built to meet very high Passive House energy efficiency standards.
The project will show how Indwell brings together innovative technologies, community financing and participation, and supportive services for success in providing affordable supportive housing. Indwell received $227,303 from Demonstrations for knowledge-sharing activities.
Housing solutions for everyone in Canada
New, more and better housing solutions are necessary to support access to housing that everyone in Canada can afford and that meets everyone’s needs.
Outcomes from Demonstrations will better equip housing stakeholders with practical solutions they can reproduce to provide more and better affordable housing.
