How Community Wealth is Creating Affordable Housing in Our Communities
Wednesday, April 15, 4:30-6 PM
On Wednesday, April 15th, 2026, from 4:30 to 6 pm, The Institute’s Social Financing and Affordable Housing Group hosted its third online event in its 3-part series. The focus of this event was how Community Wealth is now being used by non-profit organizations, charities and housing developers committed to creating affordable housing in our communities. Presenters identified specific strategies communities are using to leverage existing community wealth to create affordable housing.
Non-profit organizations, charities and housing developers committed to creating affordable housing are collaborating to create affordable housing that is economically viable and capable of attracting investors.
More than 65 participants, representing various sectors and counties, attended Part 3 of this series to hear how individuals are pursuing and implementing different ways of redirecting wealth and control of assets back into the community for affordable housing.
We continued to advance the concept of the Whole Community Approach to Housing created in cross-sectoral discussion right here, calling on the support of all community sectors to leverage the wealth of our community to increase our supply of non-market housing; housing affordable by mission rather than market. Collaboration is essential to building our capacity to create enough affordable housing.
Highlights of the Event
- Dynamic presentations demonstrating real-life examples of community wealth building using land trusts, and the potential of faith groups, charities and non-profits to lead in advancing place-based economics.
- Consultation around the benefits of collaboration regionally to achieve scale.
- Benefits of building capacity and expertise via a Community Development Organization tasked with leveraging community wealth mechanisms such as land trusts, co-ops increasing access to land and capital for affordable homes.
- The benefits of collaboration among institutions, communities and individuals for affordable housing (local, provincial and federally).
- The benefits of supporting our “non-market” housing providers as well as charities and non-profits.
Guest Speakers
- Mike Baltius from the Ottawa Community Land Trust spoke about how his community is using both a land trust and a community financing fund – built through local investment – to increase the supply of affordable housing.
- Dave Harder from Releven shared how this organization’s work is responding to the considerable number of faith communities leveraging both buildings and assets to create affordable housing.
- Ryan Deska, newly at the Community Foundation Grey-Bruce, spoke about new efforts to create our very own Community Development Corporation to support more affordable housing right here in this region.
Some Perspective on The Whole Community Approach
In addition, speakers from citizen-led groups from Southgate Township, Collingwood, Markdale, Tobermory, Owen Sound and The Town of Blue Mountains shared their reflections from organizing and learning locally about the strategies that retain wealth in our communities and directing it to local requirements. These locally organized citizen-led groups are a necessary social actor in The Whole Community Approach to Housing wherein Community Wealth to create affordable “non-market” housing is an important strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Collaboration is Critical: Multi-sector partnerships and regional collaboration are the way forward to achieve solutions at scale. Citizen-led organization and engagement matters.
- Innovation Matters: Mechanisms like land trusts, community bonds, municipal development incentives are emerging to offer new opportunities to unlock our affordable housing potential.
- Solutions may be found in our capacity to reimagine the purpose and mission of community-oriented spaces to meet today’s realities.
- Data-Driven Action: Access to robust data and planning tools are critical to matching municipal housing development decisions to community needs thus ensuring affordability requirements are factored in.
Next Steps
The Institute’s Social Finance and Affordable Housing Group is committed to building out The Whole Community Approach by bringing the community together to “roll up our sleeves” in 2026. We envision creating the required organizations and providing more events and opportunities for the community to understand and participate in community wealth building for affordable housing.
Thank you to all attendees, speakers, and contributors for making this event a success.
Leveraging community wealth increases our region’s potential to deliver affordable housing. Without housing that workers can afford, workers cannot afford to live where they work, and business doesn’t thrive impacting the whole community.
We believe that Southern Georgian Bay can meet today’s needs of the planet, its people, and economic vitality…without compromising the needs of future generations.
Please subscribe to the Institute’s newsletter, stay connected, and receive updates on events and collaborative projects by TISGB.