A look at co-op housing in Waterloo Region as feds boost funding

This week’s fiscal update from the federal government highlights the idea of using co-operative housing as a tool in the battle for housing affordability.

This week’s fiscal update from the federal government highlights the idea of using co-operative housing as a tool in the battle for housing affordability.

“In Canada, people know that they can buy and they can rent,” said Courtney Lockhart from the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF). “But there is actually a lot of different alternatives and co-op housing is one of them.”

Most co-ops operate on a non-profit model, which means rents – also called housing charges – are set collectively so they just cover the housing, Lockhart said.

“It’s at-cost housing,” she said.

Willowside Housing Co-op is one of 26 co-op places in Waterloo Region and it’s where Carine Nind has called home for 30 years.

“In housing co-op, you can relax if you know that you can meet your housing charge of your rent,” said Nind, who the community development worker at Willowside. 

The idea was popularized in the 1970s and 1980s.