According to the Canadian Funding Corp, St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society is a private, non-profit organization that uses private sector business strategies to achieve its social goal of providing safe, affordable housing in Toronto’s downtown and helping the homeless stabilize their lives, find work and participate in the community.
St. Clare’s also provides support through its partnerships with other agencies to provide a range of services to homeless people to help them integrate into the community.
The Affordable Housing Solution
An example of St. Clare’s use of private sector business strategies is the way it has leveraged funds. Phase 1 of 25 Leonard is 51 units of transitional housing. For Phase 2—another 26 units—St. Clare’s re-financed Phase 1, which contributed $1.6 million to Phase 2. St. Clare’s subsequently re-financed this loan in 2007 to leverage $500,000 in equity for the Society’s next project—190 units under development in Toronto. Each time the Society re-financed, it was able to reduce its mortgage payment as a result of obtaining lower interest rates.
St. Clare’s first success was in 2001, when it bought a former medical office building at 25 Leonard Ave., next to the Kensington Market area in downtown Toronto.
St. Clare’s converted the four-storey, 2,601 m2 (28,000 sq. ft.) building into 51 units of transitional housing for homeless people. A typical unit is 30 m2 (330 sq. ft.) and has a private bathroom and a kitchenette.The building already had an elevator and was wheelchair-accessible.
The Canadian Funding Corporation noted that at a cost of less than $95,000 per unit, 25 Leonard is one of the most cost-effective transitional housing projects developed in Toronto.
Because the building was a medical office, rooms already had sinks and running water, which cut construction costs.
To finance 25 Leonard, the key first step was securing a $50,000 line of credit from a credit union. After the property was acquired and a clear goal established, it was possible for St. Clare’s to pursue other funding sources.
St. Clare’s is a registered charity, and it raised $235,000, mostly from foundations, to help make 25 Leonard a reality.
Funding was secured from a variety of sources, including $2.5 million from the federal government’s Supporting Community Partnerships Initiative (SCPI), $395,000 in grants and waived fees from the City of Toronto, an Ontario sales tax rebate of $102,000 and GST rebates.
In addition to the sales tax rebate, the Government of Ontario offered a rent supplement which allowed the project to charge the $115 Ontario Works single-shelter rate.
Building on the success of 25 Leonard Avenue, in 2006 St. Clare’s added another 26 affordable housing units at the same site. Instead of buying another property in downtown Toronto, St. Clare’s found a solution on its own roof at 25 Leonard and embarked on Phase 2 of the project, adding a fifth and a sixth floor, with 26 self-contained bachelor apartments.
The new, factory-made units were added using an innovative construction technique that involved stacking 26 prefabricated bachelor units on the roof of the four-storey building.
The self-contained units each have their own bathroom and kitchenette.
Each unit is 19 m2 (212 sq. ft.).
These units offer a permanent housing solution to people who can live independently, but were homeless or living in shelters because they could not secure affordable housing.
The new units are organized around an exterior, landscaped courtyard on the roof, allowing natural light and fresh air into the units, as well as providing a shared outdoor garden area.
Rent for 20 of the units is established at the shelter component of the social assistance allowance and rent for six of the units is geared-to-income, through an internal subsidy.
Total cost of construction for Phase 2 of 25 Leonard was $3,124,725. CMHC and the government of Ontario covered 35 per cent of the construction costs through the Affordable Housing Initiative.
Human Resources and Social Development Canada provided a predevelopment loan through its Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative, and the City of Toronto contributed a low-interest loan and waived development fees.
Phase 2 of 25 Leonard Street and Levitt Goodman Architects Ltd. won a CMHC Housing Award in 2006 for the intensification and modular construction of 25 Leonard Street, which shows that manufactured housing is an elegant, simple and cost-effective way of creating affordable housing.
