The Affordable Housing Committee (HOUSE York) was established in 2016 to improve the housing situation for York University students, workers and members of the wider community.
We are students, professors, staff, alumni and community members working towards:
- Organizing our community around housing issues
- Educating our community on their housing rights
- Advocacy with the university, all levels of government, housing providers and others
- Development and operations of non-profit housing
Our primary goal is to facilitate the creation of new affordable housing at or in close proximity (30 minutes or less by transit) to York University's three campuses - Keele, Glendon and Markham.
There is a unique opportunity to create affordable housing co-operatives with renewed interest from all levels of government to fund affordable housing. There are over 150 housing co-ops throughout Toronto, many of which have been built through union support; however, very few new affordable housing buildings have been built since the 1990's because of neoliberal budget cuts to affordable housing programs. One of the last housing co-ops built was the Harry Sherman Crowe Housing Co-op at York University, which was the result of the efforts of labour unions at York University organizing to lobby, finance and build.
Relationship with HOUSE Canada
HOUSE was established in 2019 after a conference was organized by Affordable Housing Committee members and the StudentDwellTO student housing research project. The conference brought together experts on student housing from across North America.
HOUSE is modeled on UTILE (Unité de travail pour l'implantation de logement étudiant), a Quebec student housing advocacy and development organization. UTILE was part of a number of innovative student initiatives that arose out of Concordia University after radical progressive-left activists became elected to the student union executive. UTILE secured a student levy to develop new student affordable housing. UTILE has since gone on to secure the support of the municipal and provincial governments, financial institutions and other student unions and post-secondary institutions in their mission.
HOUSE exists as vessels to allow for the financing (borrowing, leveraging and fund development), development, construction and establishment of affordable rental co-operative housing. Upon completion, a residential housing co-operative is established. The housing co-operative leases the property from HOUSE. HOUSE acts as the mortgage holder in order to secure better financing, and to allow the equity that accrues in the properties to facilitate the development of more affordable housing in the future. By having the property owned by a social-mission driven central organization we can develop more affordable housing through reduced administrative costs, reduced lending, increased access to borrowing, greater ability to leverage and retaining in-house development expertise. This model also provides stability and allows post-secondary institutions, student unions and campus labour unions to have confidence in our model.
HOUSE is a member-based organization made up of student organizations seeking to further the development of affordable housing and incidental facilities. HOUSE York (aka York Affordable Housing Committee) is a member of HOUSE and uses HOUSE to facilitate the development and management of affordable housing at/near York University’s campuses and to support advocacy, education and programs that advance the cause of affordable and safe housing for students.
There are many challenges that face affordable housing development in Canada. There are very few affordable housing developers left since neo-liberal funding cuts occurred in the 1990s — those that are left are quickly approaching retirement. Existing housing co-operatives in Canada have become inward looking, with staff focused on what is best for them, and residents focused only on keeping rents low. HOUSE, as an organization, allows for the retention of student housing activists and real estate capital within a social venture framework. This formula has already proven successful with UTILE in being able to develop affordable housing much quicker than disperse, independent development efforts would allow. It is imperative in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by private capital, we fight to secure, retain and grow social capital – retained for the purposes of providing affordable, non-profit housing in perpetuity. Given the challenges of affordable housing development, we firmly believe in this model.
