It’s akin to the age-old question of what came first: The chicken or the egg?
Similar thinking can be applied when it comes to creating supportive housing solutions, say those in the know — you need the money to get the ball rolling on projects, but you need to be making money in order to get approved for funding those projects.
That’s where Redwood Park Communities' housing bonds campaign is hoping to change how important projects — such as Lillian Place, a family short-term supportive housing centre in Barrie’s north end set to open this spring (and build in partnership with the Salvation Army) — can go from ideas to reality.
“Community bonds is a way for charities and not-for-profits to have access to funds in a faster, more efficient way than a traditional banking system. Often what happens is we are able to go into traditional financial options later on (after) projects exist and (are) now making money,” said Carolina Belmares, co-ordinator for Redwood’s community bonds campaign, referring to the chicken-and-egg analogy.
“In order to have the projects built and making money, you need to have money first," she added. "We were getting trapped there. You can’t just rely on things like grants or government money because we know it can take a long time for all of that to come into fruition.”
Community bonds came into existence as a way to offer non-profits and charities a clearer and more direct path into accessing funds, Belmares said.
“It’s almost like crowd-sourcing the funding from your community. It’s not a donation. We are not asking people to give us their money. It’s an investment," she said. "The money is still yours and you get to make a return on your money every year, just like you would on any other investment."
Those investments are backed by the properties the organization owns, Belmares added.
“We have this problem we are trying to solve, and we have a way to solve it. Now, you get to be a direct participant in placing your money directly in your city and your community. In that timeframe, we get to do magical things in our community with it,” she said.
The organization is looking to raise $10 million over the next five months, which Belmares said would allow the organizations to move forward in adding 150 more units of affordable housing around the region.
The campaign, which “soft-launched” in September 2024, is already close to hitting its first major milestone of $500,000, which means work can begin on renovating affordable housing units in Barrie for local seniors, as well as expanding on building projects in Orillia and Midland.
“It’s a big goal for us, but it’s a goal that is reflective of the need we see in our community. We have to give it our all and we are trying to do it fast. We are hopeful our community is going to come along with us,” she said.
“These projects are so important because, at the end of the day, each of us could very easily testify about how difficult the housing situation has become in Barrie and Simcoe County. We can just step outside our door and see there is an urgency for these kinds of projects to happen,” she added. “The government is a fantastic partner, except it does take a long time and it’s not always a sure thing. You have to meet certain criteria and it’s not always fast or feasible.”
Lillian Place is a great example of a really important housing project for the community that also took a really long time, added Tim Kent, chief executive officer for Redwood Park Communities.
A large part of the reason it took as long as it did was financing, he acknowledged.
“In other words, we had to wait until the money was raised, or came in from different levels of government, to move to each next phase of construction," Kent said. "Community housing bonds let us get started on vital projects now instead of waiting those two, three or four years that it takes to line up the various funding pieces."
Belmares said that, through the community housing bonds campaign, they are trying to navigate the system in such a way where they are the problem solvers.
“What we need right now is for our community to understand that this is a fantastic thing that is happening and they have a direct chance to make this happen with us,” she said.
The need for projects like Lillian Place — a two-storey building with 12 fully furnished, two-bedroom apartments for families in crisis — is “huge,” added Kent.
“Since opening the doors of our first housing community in 2013, we have provided affordable housing with support to over 500 women, men and children," he said. "This includes women who had experienced gender-based violence but are now in new careers and healthy relationships, children who were in foster care but were able to return home once their parents secured safe, affordable housing, and men who were working three jobs but still living in their cars due to the cost of housing.
“Everyone deserves a safe, affordable, hopeful place to call home and when that's the case, our entire community benefits," he added. "Housing changes lives. It's as simple as that, and the impacts of Lillian Place will ripple out beyond our walls and through generations."