How Collective Action Can Solve the Housing Crisis

By Ryan Deska

We’re all too familiar with the “housing crisis” and the impacts that housing prices have on our own lives, be it directly or indirectly. 

Ultimately, the strength and vitality of our communities, big and small, sits on the shoulders of the people that call them home. 

We need people who can afford to work in department stores, restaurants, hospitals, grocery stores, farms and factories. 

We need people who live locally and can afford to shop locally, to support and sustain the array of local businesses and entrepreneurs who are stepping up to provide the goods and services we need in our day to day lives.

We need people who can afford to spend their lives learning a craft – to build, to paint, to sculpt, to play music and to entertain us through comedy and theatrics. 

At the same time we need people who will fill the venues, fill their cups and celebrate the richness of our shared arts and culture – together, in one room.

Housing – for those fortunate enough to have it – provides the foundation on which we start and end our days – it anchors us in place, and embeds us in our local community. I would take it as self evident that we need a wide array housing to support this wide array of people and skills that, when taken together, builds strong and vibrant communities.

Many of us, however, find ourselves sitting in our own homes, wondering what we can do. How can I make a difference as just one person? What can I do to help find solutions to the housing crisis we find ourselves in today?

One solution people have turned to, in small towns throughout Canada, is social organization – coming together to form citizen driven committees, organizations and advocacy groups in the pursuit of action on housing solutions.

As one example close to home, over the past 3 years through The Institute of Southern Georgian Bay, a group of residents – business leaders, politicians, municipal staff, retired professionals – have all come together to form a regional Housing Roundtable.

Another concept increasingly being explored is the idea of “social finance” – ways in which regular individual citizens can put their money to work, through strategic investments rooted in their own backyard – with organizations that endeavour to protect and preserve existing housing, and to build more housing close to home that people can afford. 

For those growing up in rural Ontario, or familiar with its economic and social evolution,  this concept, and the need for collective, community driven solutions should resonate.

Agriculture in Southern Ontario was once the primary industry and it continues to be a strong driver of economic activity today,  from primary production to food processing and the array of spin off and supportive industries like farm implements, veterinary services, contract farming and crop inputs.

It is unquestionably inextricably linked with the prosperity of rural communities.

Something that was true in 1900, and still true to this day, is that agriculture needs capital – capital to get started, to innovate to sustain and to expand operations; and farmers and farm communities over time have rallied in a number of ways to provide capital and to provide a supportive ecosystem that helps farmers grow.  Some of what has emerged from these efforts are things like agricultural cooperatives, cooperative insurance companies and credit unions – and yes, social finance.

What we endeavour to explore today is no different – how can we come together to leverage our collective wealth, to put our money to work, and find a local solution to a local problem.

The challenge we all face today is different, but in many ways the same. Today, we need housing we all can afford, and we are exploring this same spirit of collective self-help to get there.

How can we rally together to invest in the future we all want to see?