Financing Housing with the Power of Community

Affordable housing providers need flexible financing to help deliver housing projects and need creative financial tools to assist delivery. Among these tools is community finance and in particular, community bonds. Tapestry Community Capital specializes in the use of community bonds and have supported not-for-profits to unlock over $100M in impact investments to fund 61 projects. With support from the CMHC, Tapestry is now assisting affordable housing providers and have launched the first BC community bond campaign with Propolis Housing Cooperative. This session will cover what community bonds are and how they work. Propolis Housing Cooperative will share their current experience of issuing bonds as a case study.

Who should attend?

anyone looking to develop or build, anyone interested in learning how they can invest in Affordable Housing

What will you learn?

• Understand how affordable housing organizations can leverage community investment for their projects using community bonds
• Understand when community bonds are a good fit for a housing project
• Understand what it takes to issue community bonds through the current experience of a BCNPHA member (Propolis Housing Cooperative)
• Understand the benefits – as individuals – of investing locally through tools such as community bonds

Presenters

Suzanne Faiza – Knowledge Lead, Tapestry Community Capital

Suzanne is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto’s Masters of Science in Planning. As Knowledge Lead, Suzanne researches community bonds and their application. In particular, Suzanne works to scale the use of community bonds by building awareness of the model through knowledge mobilization, translation and generation. She also works to build the necessary partnerships that help support knowledge mobilization and generation. Outside of Tapestry, Suzanne loves to sing, weave, climb and bike.

Lindsay Harris – Co-Founder and President, Propolis Housing Cooperative 

Lindsay Harris is a community-based researcher living in Kamloops, BC. Her current research focuses on food systems, agricultural development, rural and small city resilience and grassroots community decision making. She is the food policy implementation lead for the Kamloops Food Policy Council, facilitating collaborative initiatives to grow a local, regenerative food system. Lindsay is the co-founder and president of the Propolis Cooperative Housing Society, which aims to build affordable, sustainable housing in the Kamloops region.