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Veterans Village Housing Lab: André Thivierge

September 14, 2023 in Community, Housing, Veterans Village

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There are an estimated 617,800 veterans in Canada, representing approximately 1.7% of the population, yet as of 2020 point in time counts, 7% of Albertans experiencing homelessness self-identify as having served in the Canadian military. The Veterans Village Housing Lab, a Solutions Lab that is funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, was initiated this summer to find innovative, affordable housing solutions that explore issues of health and wellness, affordable financing, and communal living concepts in housing amongst Veterans, in hopes of addressing this disparity.

The first episode of the series begins to explore issues of transition, health and wellbeing, and partnerships in providing housing for Veterans experiencing housing insecurity with André Thivierge, of the City of Ottawa Veterans Task Force. André is a 30 year Canadian Armed Forces Veteran who retired in 2013, and is a co-founder and co-chair of the Veterans Task Force in Ottawa, where he works to enhance the programs and services available to Veterans and their families through the three pillars of health, housing, and transitioning to second careers.

Over the next four months, we are conducting user interviews, and community engagement sessions to understand the community’s perspective on emerging solutions. If you’re interested in participating or learning more about this work to support housing security with Canadian Veterans, drop us a note at yasushi.ohki@greenviolin.ca. We would love to hear from you!

Resources

The Seven Domains Of Well-Being: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/about-vac/news-media/salute/2019-se/wellbeing

Veterans House Canada: https://www.veteranshousecanada.ca/

Halal Housing Lab: Community Experience

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

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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

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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/