Affordable Housing | 360 Degree City

2SLGBTQ+ Seniors Housing Lab: Eric Storey

August 30, 2023 in 2SLGBTQ+ Seniors, Community, Housing

How might we create innovative housing solutions that support the unique needs of 2SLGBTQ+ seniors, while proactively connecting these folks into the broader community?

This question is guiding the 2SLGBTQ+ Seniors Housing Lab, a Solutions Lab that is funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. These labs fuel bottom-up collaborative innovation by bringing diverse groups of people together to solve complex housing problems to help inform decision making at all levels. This lab was initiated by Green Violin, a community development company that delivers sustainable housing solutions, and our team here at Intelligent Futures, with the goal to explore issues of discrimination, ageism, and isolation in housing in collaboration with the 2SLGBTQ+ seniors community in Edmonton.

Today, we’ll begin to explore the complexity of the challenge at hand with Eric Storey of Edmonton Pride Seniors Group. Eric is actively engaged in the 2SLGBTQ+ seniors community in Edmonton, where he volunteers his time and experience as a social worker, a queer senior, and a passionate community member to advocate for the experiences and issues faced by seniors. Eric is an award-winning advocate and educator for his community, where he serves on the board of several seniors serving community organizations, supporting and connecting with other community minded individuals of all ages.

Over the fall, we are conducting user interviews, and community engagement sessions to understand the community’s perspective on emerging solutions. If you’re interested in participating, learning more, or sharing any non-traditional affordable housing models that you think might be relevant to the exploration of 2SLGBTQ+ Seniors housing, drop us a note at helen@intelligentfutures.ca. We would love to hear from you!

Resources

Edmonton Pride Seniors Group: Helping to create safe spaces in Edmonton for greater quality of life for older 2SLGBTQ+ residents – https://epsg.ca/

2SLGBTQ+: 2SLGBTQ+ is an acronym that stands for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, plus all other identities that make up sexual and gender diverse communities, who use other terminologies. This acronym and various associated terms are continually evolving as representation, and cultural understanding of these communities in Canada evolves over time. These definitions are only a starting point to understanding 2SLGBTQ+ identities and issues, and the most important thing is to be respectful of individuals, using the language that feels best to them.

Halal Housing Lab: Community Experience

April 23, 2023 in Community, Halal Housing Lab, Housing

Subscribe: Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

This is the fifth and final instalment of the Halal Housing Lab podcast series, where we’ve been exploring the complexity of affordable housing development, alongside new and innovative solutions to affordably house multigenerational Muslim families in Edmonton, Alberta. The Halal Housing Lab is a collaborative project between our partners at Islamic Family, Another Way, SAS Architecture, Ask for a Better World, and Intelligent Futures, funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Throughout the first four episodes of the podcast series, we’ve talked with many of our lab partners, who are experts in navigating the systems and scales of affordable housing development. One expert voice that has been absent from this conversation, is the voice of Muslims with lived experience in affordable housing developments. In today’s podcast episode, we dive into a great conversation co-produced by our Lab partner Hussain Khan of Islamic Family, in conversation with Howaida Hassan, to better understand the lived experience of affordable housing in the Muslim community. Howaida Hassan is a Director Urban Growth and Open Space with the City of Edmonton, as well as a Board member of Islamic Family. Howaida is interested in the cross-section of city building, urban mobility and equity and how it shapes our cities. A big part of her career and how she thinks about equitable and accessible cityscapes, is through her experiences of living in affordable housing with her family for the first ten years of her life.

Resources

Islamic Family Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ifssa-islamic-family-social-services-association/id1448826236

Hussain Khan on Instagram: @hvssain.k

Halal Housing Lab: Halal Financing

April 9, 2023 in Community, Halal Housing Lab, Housing, Justice

Subscribe: Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

This is the fourth episode of the Halal Housing Lab podcast series, exploring how we might finance an affordable housing project for multigenerational Muslim families in Edmonton, Alberta, while being respectful of the financial values of Islamic culture. The Halal Housing Lab is a collaborative project between our partners at Islamic Family, Another Way, SAS Architecture, Ask for a Better World, and Intelligent Futures, funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Over the course of the past several months, we’ve begun working to find new and innovative housing solutions that not only accommodate the needs of multigenerational Muslim families, but can improve the housing market for everyone in Canada.

Conventional financing models keeps many Muslims, as well as service organizations like Islamic Family, out of the affordable housing market. A central component to the Halal Housing Lab has been to identify how different models of affordable housing financing can be leveraged to support diverse world views, while working within the larger Canadian housing system. Financing is a critical component to the success of any housing development, and when the idea of money is inherent to cultural values that differ from the North American norm, it compounds the difficulty of addressing the growing shortage of affordable housing in Canadian cities. While challenging, learning from Islamic values towards money through the concept of Halal financing, has the potential to create more equitable and transparent financial systems for all.

If you know of any non-traditional affordable housing models that you think might be relevant to the exploration of Halal Housing, drop us a note at hello@360degree.city. We would love to hear about them!

Resources

Community Investment Co-operatives: https://bcca.coop/community-investment-co-ops-a-growing-co-operative-sector-in-bc/

Islamic Family podcast on Zakat: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ifssa-islamic-family-social-services-association/id1448826236

McCauley Development Cooperative: https://socialenterprisefund.ca/client/mccauley-development-cooperative/