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Breaking the Bottleneck: Catalysts for Expansion in NL’s Community Housing Sector

Report highlights huge economic and social impact potential for community housing in Newfoundland and Labrador

Today, the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (CFNL) and Annex Consulting released Breaking the Bottleneck: Catalysts for Expansion in NL’s Community Housing Sector. The report provides an overview of the current state of the community housing sector in NL and offers recommendations to strengthen it, particularly in relation to developing new community housing.  

The report found that Newfoundland and Labrador lags behind the rest of Canada in community housing. Community housing represents 0.3% of housing in the province compared to a 4% national average and a 7% OECD average. The report also found that there are billions of dollars in untapped economic potential related to community housing development, in addition to the proven and permanent social impacts. 

“Newfoundland and Labrador is in a housing crisis, and it’s been getting significantly worse for many years now. The community housing sector is an underutilized and proven solution to this pressing challenge in our province,” said Nicole Dawe, Executive Director with the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, one of the partners in the report. 

“We heard from so many current and aspiring community housing organizations throughout our engagement. The sector is ready and able, they just need some more support to unlock this incredible potential in the province”, Dawe said. 

“There’s a bottleneck in the early stages of development. There’s almost no funding and organizations just don’t have the time, expertise or financial capacity to dedicate to advancing projects to increase the supply of affordable housing in their communities without these resources,” says Hope Jamieson, Founder of Annex Consulting, CFNL’s partner in the report. 

“Everyone is looking for so-called “shovel-ready” projects, but there isn’t enough support to get community housing projects in NL to the stage of shovel-readiness. Other provinces have organizations and human resources that help to navigate the development process, and funds that invest in these early stages. In the report, we highlight the need for both of these and make other recommendations to create more permanently affordable, community-owned housing across the province”, Jamieson added. 

Funding for the report was provided by the Community Housing Transformation Centre.

Report Links

Media Contacts

Nicole Dawe

Executive Director

Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador

ndawe@cfnl.ca 

T: 709-221-1030

M: 709-219-7865

 

Hope Jamieson

President

Annex Consulting

hope@annexconsultingnl.ca

T: 709-770-0546