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  • National Housing Strategy
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NHS Demonstrations Initiative

Showcasing innovative practices, technologies, programs, policies and strategies

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Next call for applications is in May 2021.

The National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative highlights innovative solutions aiming to improve the performance, viability and effectiveness of affordable housing by providing a platform to:

  • create and disseminate real-world data and information on affordable housing
  • demonstrate innovative solutions that aim to improve the performance, viability and effectiveness of affordable housing solutions
  • foster a culture of innovation in the affordable housing sector that will better meet the housing needs of Canadians

The Demonstrations initiative offers solutions aiming to:

  • strengthen, better equip and innovate the affordable housing sector
  • increase stakeholder’s awareness, knowledge and acceptance of promising innovations

Demonstration formats include on-site tours, virtual tours, best-practices guides, case studies, factsheets, website content, user experience videos, surveys and innovation profiles.

Projects are funded through an annual open-call, merit-based competitive process. We may also fund demonstration initiatives led by external organizations that are aligned with the National Housing Strategy and federal priorities.

The Demonstrations Initiative in action: Find out how funding demonstrates the value of innovative solutions for people experiencing homelessness in London, Ontario to have affordable place to call home. Find other similar success stories here.

SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

2020 Successful Projects

 
Regent Park: World Urban Pavilion (Directed Demo)
The Pavilion will be a physical and virtual knowledge exchange hub in support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the New Urban Agenda. It will showcase and facilitate sharing science, research and innovation in urban revitalization. There will be an emphasis on housing and housing affordability, including the lived experiences of NHS vulnerable populations.
 
Evergreen: Future Cities Canada: Unexpected Solutions (Directed Demo)
A virtual demonstration platform that showcased housing innovations and connected the people behind them; providing the opportunity to increase awareness and the capacity needed to scale innovative solutions across the housing and urban innovation.

 

2019 Successful Projects

 
Kijaté: An Innovative Urban Aboriginal Social Housing Solution
This project will demonstrate an Aboriginal social housing project providing access to affordable, adequate and stable housing.
 
My Home My Community: Pathways to Homeownership National Demonstration Initiative
This project seeks to improve housing stability, affordability, and choice for people with developmental disabilities.
 
Promoting affordability and social wellbeing: implementing design and social programming in multi-unit housing
This project aims to demonstrate and share the social and affordable benefits of thoughtful design and social programming.
 
ARDN Step-By-Step Guide to Developing Affordable Housing
The step-by-step guide highlights best practices in planning, developing, and operating affordable rental housing.
 

2018 Successful Projects

 
Energy efficient solutions to thermal stress for vulnerable Canadians
Demonstrating cold climate air-source heat pumps (CC-ASHPs) as energy efficiency retrofit solutions for electrically heated Multi-Residential Buildings.
 
A winning revitalization approach
Discover the San Romanoway Revival project, a successful approach to revitalizing aging affordable housing developments.
 
From Emergency Shelter to Affordable Housing with Support
Showcasing how emergency shelters can successfully transition to providing affordable housing with support functions.
 
Modular Construction for Sustainable and Affordable Community Housing
Exploring the potential of an emerging and increasingly used strategy for designing and constructing high-performance buildings in reduced timeframes.
 
My Home, My Community: Pathways to inclusive affordable housing
Enabling the inclusion of people living with developmental disabilities in communities.
 
Smart Homes: supporting community integration
Evaluating Smart Homes’ potential for supporting independent living for people living with mental illness
 
Innovative approach to supportive housing.
Discovering Indwell’s integrated approach: Passive House performance levels, community financing programs, community participation strategies and supportive services.
 
Affordable housing options to prevent youth homelessness.
Exploring the Reside program, the proposed solution to help prevent youth homelessness.
 
Transformation towards Universal Design
Meeting changing needs for seniors and people living with disabilities.

FUND DETAILS

Funding for successful projects will range from $25,000 to a maximum of $250,000. Projects in the Demonstrations initiative should have a duration of up to 18 months. Considerations for determining demonstration funding include the:

  • nature of the demonstration
  • complexity of the proposed demonstration
  • potential value and impact of the innovation demonstrated
  • cost to carry out the eligible activities
  • knowledge dissemination plan
  • deployment readiness and feasibility of the project
  • project relevance to the NHS priority areas, vulnerable population groups and expected outcomes
  • available budget

Funded eligible elements will primarily focus on showcasing and knowledge dissemination activities. This includes:

  • planning, fabrication, installation, operation and maintenance and removal of demonstration platform(s)
  • surveys of demonstration audiences, property owners and managers, tenants
  • monitoring and documentation of the demonstration and related activities for the creation of the final outcomes report

Costs not directly associated with deploying the innovation, showcasing, communicating, knowledge dissemination and reporting on the demonstration will be ineligible (although such costs may be eligible if they are integral to the larger project).

As an innovation champion, you will:

  • receive funding to showcase, communicate and assess innovations applied to affordable housing projects
  • be a leader and innovator in the affordable housing sector
  • broaden your business, community and stakeholder network and develop collaboration opportunities
  • provide insights into the performance, costs, benefits, acceptance, feasibility and limitations of the innovation

ELIGIBILITY AND REQUIREMENTS

To be eligible for this initiative projects must:

  • be located in Canada
  • include an affordable housing “Host” as partners and collaborators
  • align with the strategy’s priority areas and priority populations
  • demonstrate a solution of a minimum of Readiness Level of 7 (prototype has been tested in a simulated environment and is ready to be demonstrated in a real-world environment)
  • showcase cutting-edge, innovative technologies, practices, programs, policies and strategies
  • be replicable and near- or market-ready solutions to affordable housing challenges
  • be delivered and completed within an 18-month timeframe

Projects may address any housing form (singles, detached, row, multi-unit) and type of ownership (non-profit, public, private rental or ownership). To determine the initiative’s outcomes, you must provide a final report of the project’s deployment, operations, outputs and knowledge transfer activities. Pertinent information must be collected on the demonstrated innovation during implementation. This will include costs, benefits, impacts, increased demonstration audience awareness and knowledge through on-site performance monitoring, occupant surveys, exit surveys of demonstration audiences.

Note: Eligible applicants must indicate any relevant project funding that they have applied to, been approved for, or have received. Also, please indicate partner or co-applicant funding and include funding from other strategy initiatives (for example:National Housing Co-investment Fund – Housing Construction Stream, National Housing Co-investment Fund – Renewal and Repair Stream, Rental Construction Financing Initiative).

Demonstrations funding is available to those who wish to address housing related issues identified under the strategy’s priority areas and/or priority population groups.

Eligible applicants include:

  • Canadian citizens
  • Canadian companies, organizations, associations, private and non-profit builders and developers of affordable housing projects
  • design, construction and renovation professionals
  • non-profit affordable housing organizations and cooperatives
  • First Nations, Métis and Inuit organizations, housing organizations agencies and authorities,
  • Non-governmental organization (NGOs) seeking to demonstrate and showcase new and innovative approaches to the efficient and effective provision or delivery of affordable housing projects such as Habitat for Humanity, Tower Renewal Partnership, CaGBC or FCM
  • Governmental and non-governmental organization (NGOs) seeking to demonstrate and showcase new and innovative approaches for the effective and efficient provision and/or delivery of programs and services supporting and improving the quality of life of vulnerable populations living in affordable housing.

Note: International organizations and individuals may be members of the demonstration team but not the primary lead applicant (i.e. they must partner with a Canadian lead that acts as the ’Applicant’).

APPROVAL PROCESS – OPEN CALL COMPETITIVE APPLICATIONS

An evaluation committee made up of subject-matter experts from the affordable housing and innovation sectors will evaluate all eligible applications. The eligible applications received will be reviewed, scored and prioritized based on merit, using the program scoring scale and evaluation criteria.

Recommendation for funding will be provided to the highest scoring applications, based on budget available. In all cases, only applications scoring 80% or higher will be eligible for funding.

Higher priority will be given to demonstrations that focus on innovative solutions applied to actual affordable housing projects. These solutions must address substantive, long-standing problems in the sector, or represent a significant opportunity to improve affordable housing project performance and outcomes.

High-scoring projects will be well-aligned with the National Housing Strategy priority areas and expected outcomes, including the project's relevance to priority populations. High-impact demonstration projects will support a better quality of life by improving housing conditions for Canadians. This will be achieved by contributing to the development of sustainable housing and other social, economic and environmental goals.

RESOURCES

  • Glossary
  • CMHC Brand Guidelines

External resources:

  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council – Guidelines for Effective Knowledge Mobilization
  • Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2018)

HOW TO APPLY – OPEN CALL COMPETITIVE APPLICATIONS

The 2020 open-call for applications is now closed.

Our next application process will take place in 2021.

You can register to receive news on the program by sending an email request at Innovation-Research@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Contact

General inquiries about the National Housing Strategy or technical support:

  • Phone: 1-800-668-2642 (Business hours: 8:00 am to 7:00 pm Eastern Time)
  • Email: Innovation-Research@cmhc.ca

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Date Published: February 28, 2020
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