FINANCING EXAMPLES

Catalyst Community Developments Society (“Catalyst”) is a non-profit real estate developer based in Vancouver, BC that was established in 2013. To date the organization has completed development on approximately 180 homes, with that number anticipated to grow over the next few years to over 700 below-market rental homes for over 1,300 people whose household incomes are generally between $30,000 and $108,000 per year.

Catalyst is undertaking a project to construct 14 new affordable housing units in Tofino, BC. Tofino has a very young population with small households, including many lower income single person households, making the mismatch between incomes and home prices particularly acute. The large influx of both tourists and seasonal workers exacerbates housing problems in the summer months as much of the available housing is turned over to the vacation rental market. While some employers provide accommodation for their staff, there is an acute shortage of affordable and appropriate accommodation for seasonal non-resident workers.

In order to continue moving project approvals forward and maintain project momentum, Catalyst required bridge financing prior to accessing its construction financing.

CFF worked closely with Catalyst to structure a financing tool that would best meet its needs. In 2020, CFF provided Catalyst with a bridge loan to help support its operations and pre-development work on the project while construction financing was secured.

The construction of these 14 new units of affordable housing will help to alleviate the acute housing shortage in Tofino by providing homes for several community members including several of its seasonal workers.

St. Hilda’s Towers Inc. (“St. Hilda’s”) is a non-profit housing community that has been providing affordable housing and healthcare assistance to seniors in Toronto since 1977. St. Hilda’s is undergoing a project to substantially renovate and refurbish two of its three towers. In order to continue moving project approvals forward and maintain project momentum, St. Hilda’s required bridge financing prior to accessing its construction financing.

CFF worked closely with St. Hilda’s to structure a financing tool that would best meet its needs. In 2020, CFF provided St. Hilda’s with a bridge loan to help support its operations and predevelopment work on the project while construction financing was secured.

The refurbishment of the two housing towers will modernize 333 units of affordable rental housing for seniors. The project will substantially renovate the towers including increased accessibility, improved building systems, an energy retrofit, unit repairs, podium modernization and an additional 20 to 30 new apartment units. St. Hilda’s residents will enjoy continued affordable housing and healthcare assistance in the newly renovated buildings.

Adopt4Life (“A4L”) was founded in 2011 and serves as Ontario’s association for kin, customary care and adoptive parents and caregivers. The organization fosters a community of people with lived experience that strengthens and empowers parents and caregivers to achieve permanency for children so that they can reach their full potential. A4L’s model is based on peer support with individualized professional support as needed. A4L partners with regional organizations and agencies so as to provide its community with the best possible resources and services. All of A4L’s services are provided to the community free of charge.

A4L’s primary program is the Parent2Parent Support Network. This program supports parents throughout their adoption journeys with one-on-one support, online support groups, advocacy, virtual and in-person meet-ups and buddy and mentor matching. In 2019 alone, A4L organized and facilitated ~150 support group meetings across Ontario, benefitting their community of over 1200 parents and caregivers, in addition to one-on-one and peer-to-peer meetings.

A4L receives funding from the Ministry of Community, Children, and Social Services for the province of Ontario. Each year, 10% of A4L’s annual funding is withheld until final reporting and outcomes have been delivered and completed.  As a small registered charity, Adopt4Life did not have the flexible reserves to bridge those funds without affecting parents and families.

Adopt4Life approached Community Forward Fund for support in bridging the government funds withheld while the organization finalized its annual reporting. CFF worked with A4L to structure a loan that would meet its cashflow needs and support its continued successful operations.

A4L has supported over 1,100 parents and caregivers to date who are registered for peer and mentor support services. A4L families also receive one-on-one support including training, support resources and mental health and medical referrals to specialists. Over 12,000 children are in the child welfare system in Ontario and are looking for homes. Studies show that ~90% of children who age out of care at the time of adulthood have poor outcomes later on – including having to rely on social services within six months of becoming an adult. The services that A4L provides its community will continue to work towards helping families form permanent, supportive homes and building healthy attachments that support healing from past traumas and losses.

Old Grace Housing Co-operative’s financing package consisted of a forgivable loan from Manitoba Housing, those tax credits and grants available to non-profit housing projects, equity in the form of ultimately refundable Member Shares and a large mortgage from its lender, Assiniboine Credit Union. Due to the limited public funding available, its Member Shares were substantial. For the subsidized Affordable units, they still ranged between $16,000 for a 1BR suite and $28,000 for a 4BR suite.

At the beginning of construction, Old Grace was about $200,000 short of the $3.57 million in Shares it would have needed to be able to afford some key elements of the project – a second elevator, a wheelchair lift from the basement to the parking lot level, and finishing and landscaping of the interior courtyard.

Funding from the Community Forward Fund (CFF) made it possible to add those elements into the construction contract at the appropriate times and “bought them time” to find other non-loan resources to fund these elements. Old Grace was able to secure a federal grant to install the wheelchair lift. They were able to secure a sponsorship of the courtyard from its lender – Assiniboine Credit Union. And they were also able to partner with several local churches with interests in affordable housing who sponsored shares for the suites housing some of our lowest-income residents, including 4 refugee families.

Without the CFF funding, Old Grace would have run out of time to find these partners before the construction schedule required them to commit to these project costs (or face a much higher cost later for post-construction retrofitting).

Thirty-four of the units are earmarked for households qualifying for Affordable housing per the Province of Manitoba’s income ceilings. Of these 13 are very-low-income households eligible to receive Provincial Rent Supplement Assistance. The remaining suites are available to households whose incomes may exceed these limits.

The co-op is an architecturally distinctive, sustainable, accessible (for mobility challenged) and relatively dense development in an established neighbourhood. The monthly housing charges have been set at the 2018 Median Market Rent (MMR) as established by the Province for affordable housing. Old Grace is planning to maintain the 2018 housing charges at the same level in our 2019 fiscal year despite the expectation that the Province will increase the MMR by approximately 2% in January. Over time Old Grace expects its suites to become even more affordable in comparison to the local market. The Province publishes its MMR data annually so they have an ongoing way of tracking their affordability.

Careful attention to energy and water savings in the design and construction will mean lower utility costs (energy costs are projected to be 26% below comparable buildings), also working to keep housing charges down. Old Grace was able to lock its mortgage in during construction at 3.39% for a 5-year term and have secured a 35-year mortgage. Old Grace is very hopeful that suites and townhouses in Old Grace Housing Co-op will become increasingly affordable over time.

Tucker House, a local environmental group in the Ottawa region, is the proud recipient of the Community Forward Fund’s first loan.

Situated in the countryside on a former family estate, they have successfully run day camps for children in the summer and year-round programs for adults on energy efficiency and renewable energy for several years, taking over operations from a church group. Their growth has been slow and steady over the past several years as the focus has changed from faith-based to environmental, under the tutelage of a dynamic Executive Director and an engaged Carver-model board.

In 2009, the Ontario government created a Micro-FIT (Feed In Tariff) program that allowed small organizations to feed electricity into the grid and be paid 80 cents per kilowatt hour.

Community Forward Fund worked closely with Tucker House to structure a financing tool that would best meet the organization’s needs and support its purchase the solar panels.

Thanks to a loan from the Community Forward Fund, Tucker House’s dream became a reality. The solar panels allow the organization to reduce its environmental footprint and be a role model for sustainability in the community. It also provides them, over time, with a sustainable revenue stream. With the Micro-FIT program, solar panels would pay for themselves within 15 – 20 years and the organization needed the capital to purchase them.

In late 2005, the Theatre Centre began discussions with the City of Toronto about the Carnegie Library at 1115 Queen Street West, in the heart of downtown Toronto. The Theatre Centre was looking to expand its offerings and saw an opportunity to return the heritage site to its former glory as a cultural hub. In a highly competitive process, the organization was selected by the City of Toronto to redevelop and lease the City owned property. The City of Toronto agreed to invest $1 million toward the renovations which included: restoration the Edwardian façade, creation of a performance space with seating for 200 as well as a green-roofed terrace event space, development of a fully equipped laboratory to support artists’ experimentation and rehearsal, a retrofit of the lobby to include a café with city views, and finally, establishment of an extensive gallery space for visual and media arts.

With construction completed January 2014, The Theatre Centre has secured roughly 90% of its total funding requirement through grants, sponsorships, and donations to its capital campaign. The organization will use a bridge loan from the Community Forward Fund to help with ramping up operations. The loan will bridge the collection of committed funding and the capital which has yet to be raised.

“We have seen this scenario play-out time and time again in the social finance space” says CFF CEO Derek Ballantyne. “An organization will be able to secure enough funding for a project, but will experience a delay between needing the cashflow and receiving the committed funding. We are pleased that the Community Forward Fund has been able to provide bridge loans to projects like the Theatre Centre to ensure that renovations and programming are moving forward instead of experiencing delays. The impact that this renovation will have on the City of Toronto will be incredible.”

“Our experience with the Community Forward Fund has been nothing short of amazing”, says Franco Boni, Artistic Director of The Theatre Centre. “Traditional banks are hesitant to provide loans to non-profits, but the Community Forward Fund understood the importance of providing assistance to organizations like The Theatre Centre. They stepped up to the plate. Thanks to their help, when we opened our newly renovated space in March 2014, we were able to immediately launch productions. In the months since, we have experienced an unprecedented level of activity. None of this would have been possible without the support we received from the Community Forward Fund. We are forever appreciative of their help at such a critical point in our growth as an organization.”

Heartwood House was established in 2001 and is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to supporting small non-profit and charitable organizations by offering an affordable, accessible workplace for small non-profit and charitable organizations. Heartwood House and its member organizations provide a wide variety of services to support those Ottawa residents living in poverty, and/or who are disadvantaged due to disabilities, low literacy, language, housing, unemployment or health challenges. Heartwood House helps its member groups maximize their services by providing a mutually supportive, hospitable and empowering environment for their clients and participants, where organizations can collaborate and develop formal and informal partnerships within the House and among the greater community.

Heartwood House purchased its current space in 2012 and experienced some setbacks with the redevelopment. Heartwood House came to CFF to refinance its existing debt and improve its working capital.

CFF was able to help Heartwood House refinance its debt which will result in significant debt service savings and improved working capital to continue running its operations smoothly.

Heartwood House manages over 26,000 square feet of affordable working space for charities and non-profits to serve their communities. Each year over 15,000 people are served by the members of the Heartwood House community. The Community Forward Fund loan will empower Heartwood House to continue its work to provide affordable space for small charitable and non-profit organizations to serve the poor.

The SLSH facility was built in the early 1900 as two large single family dwellings. These building have been heavily used as a halfway house facility for over 40 years, by people transitioning from prison back into the Hamilton community. The success of this 36 bed residential program is to transition clients who are coming out of prison and returning to the community, to become financially independent and not commit new offenses.

The site has never had a proper HVAC system. The site was always expensive to heat in the winter and extremely hot in the summer. We called the plumber so often we were put on a weekly maintenance plan. The old wiring was always a challenge in today’s electrical world.

The cost of the renovations for this type of facility were well in excess of the savings of the Society and the limit of any one lender. A second mortgage was sought from the Hamilton Community Foundation in concert with a second mortgage from the Community Forward Fund. The Community Forward (CFF) fund provided oversight and due diligence for both second mortgages.

We found the loan process with CFF very efficient and manageable. Richard Bright, the CFF Lending Director was knowledgeable, supportive and understanding. Richard Bright demonstrated great experience dealing with an inexperienced Not-for-Profit. Richard Bright stated that “the work of SLSH was in alignment with the type of projects that the Community Forward Fund likes to support.”

Now that the project is nearing completion (occupancy Sept 2018), SLSH is looking forward to living in a modern, fully accessible site. The renovated site will have ground floor access and an elevator to all levels.

Since 1984, Nishnawbe Homes has provided safe, affordable housing for under-housed and homeless Aboriginal people in an environment that promotes and cultivates Aboriginal culture and values. Nishnawbe Homes, an experienced housing provider, currently owns 17 properties in Greater Toronto Area and Brampton, Ontario with more than 200 dwelling units.

Nishnawbe Homes is building a new, 16 unit, one and two bedroom apartment building in Oshawa, Ontario. The building will be located in an area with existing city infrastructure and services, and will be a positive contribution to enlivening the neighbourhood.  Capital funding for construction was made available trough provincial affordable housing programs for Aboriginal communities

In order to begin construction, Nishnawbe Homes had to address costs related to obtaining a building permit and project approvals.  Grant and construction financing starts only after the planning and pre-development work is complete.

The organization obtained a bridge loan from the Community Forward Fund. The loan will be repaid once construction lending is in place and grant funding is provided to Nishnawbe Homes.  This is expected in May 2014. The CFF loan provides project development and initiation funding, and this allows for the project to proceed to a point where other funding and long term debt can be used.

Frances Sanderson of Nishnawbe Homes writes, “We are very grateful to the Community Forward Fund for recognizing and supporting our efforts to create a housing environment designed for homeless women in the Oshawa area. CFF was an integral piece of Nishnawbe Homes’ financial puzzle, to get the Oshawa project off the ground.  CFF provided the funding bridge which enabled us to realize our vision to make housing available for those most in need.”

As an organization that serves new Canadians, Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization recognized the need for affordable housing for immigrants and refugees and, as a result, founded OCISO Nonprofit Housing Corporation (OCISO NHC) in 1991. OCISO NHC completed their first housing project in 1994 and the second in 2011. Both housing projects enjoy 100% occupancy, fulfilling a need for affordable housing, and have waiting lists. This success set up OCISO NP for a new project.

The Canada Lands Corporation, the entity that divests land from the federal government, had a piece of land that they were contributing to the City of Ottawa. Ottawa, in turn, issued a Request for Proposals to entertain uses for the land, which was free and came along with subsidies from the federal and provincial governments. Ottawa was seeking proposals as they recognized the ongoing need in the city for affordable housing and saw this as an opportunity to address that need. OCISO NHC’s proposal, submitted with Sound Advice, a local Ottawa company, won the bid in June 2012.

In order to meet the requirements of the Canada Lands Corporation, OCISO NHC needed to have a building permit by the end of the year. This included the need to pay for a number of construction-related costs within six months, something that normally takes up to nine months to complete, including the design work.

OCISO NHC and Sound Advice learned about the Community Forward Fund and, after meeting with them, applied for a loan. For the proposal, they had much of the paper work required for the due diligence CFF undergoes and Ron Lavoie, president of the OCISO NHC volunteer board, states, “The process was quick and smooth. Given our time pressure, we were pleased that so much of the paperwork was already completed and we were able to move so quickly.”

The Community Foundation of Ottawa (CFO), which has invested in the Fund, has been a long-time supporter of OCISO’s work through its grant programs and, as Barbara McInnes, President & CEO of the CFO, states, “We are delighted to be involved as investors in such an important and worthy project, and look forward to seeing this new affordable housing built in Ottawa.”

The interim costs were covered by the loan from the Community Forward Fund and shovels hit the dirt on December 17, 2012, well ahead of schedule. An independent consultant was hired to evaluate the building’s LEED standing and found that it exceeds the Silver standard.

Community Forward Fund Founder and Senior Advisor Nora Sobolov remarks, “OCISO NHC’s leadership in this area has been exemplary and we are pleased to contribute to this excellent project that will provide affordable housing to new Canadians.”

One of the really outstanding elements of this project is how well it takes into consideration the needs of the client groups. Ron Lavoie notes, “We wanted to create a building that would increase the amount of affordable housing for immigrants and refugees in Ottawa. New Canadians’ families are often larger than the national average so, as a board, we mandated that the new building have several units with three- to four-bedrooms.”

Centre3 for Print and Media Arts, a Hamilton-based artist-run organization, has undergone many exciting changes over the years but one important element has remained the same: Centre3 is dedicated to providing the arts community in the region with an affordable venue for making and exhibiting art. For close to a decade, Centre3 has been a vibrant exhibition hub for artists, especially printmakers, both locally and internationally.

Founded in 2003, Centre3 has, over time, expanded its programming and mandate to meet the needs of a much broader community, one that draws out the artistic visions of at-risk youth, while continuing to meet its original mandate serving artists, especially printmakers.

Going forward, the organization needed to strengthen its infrastructure and become a more mature organization by diversifying its funding base. The management team at Centre3 realized one of the most effective ways to do this is to hire a full-time Development Officer. Executive Director Colina Maxwell approached Centre3’s board with the recommendation that they take out a loan with the Community Forward Fund in order to hire the Officer who would raise their salary plus unrestricted funds. The board’s reply was a definite no.

In response, Maxwell along with Centre3’s board chair developed a strong strategy making the business case for hiring the Development Officer. Over time, they persuaded the board that this was an important and crucial next step for the organization. Once the board agreed, Centre3 contacted the Community Forward Fund’s Director of Lending Services and they began the loan application process.

The Community Forward Fund met with Centre3 at the Hamilton Community Foundation’s office where they discussed the details of a loan. Given Centre3’s long-standing presence and strong reputation in the community, their steady growth over the past decade, and strong business plan, CFFAC’s Director of Lending Services encouraged Centre3 to apply for a loan. Because they had a solid strategy in place already, the paperwork was almost fully completed and before too long the loan was approved.

The loan provided them with the cash flow to hire a Development Officer. Maxwell believes in the strength of community and the vision of artists. She states, “This loan is an important part of our next steps as an organization and will allow us to expand our offering and create more value in our community.”

Catholic Family Services (CFS) of Hamilton is a multi-service agency that has served the Hamilton and Burlington communities since 1944. Their tagline, “Helping Make Life Better”, is reflected in the work they do with and for some of their community’s most vulnerable members.

As a multi-service agency, Catholic Family Services of Hamilton looks for gaps in services, and creates programs to fill those needs. CFS offers a range of programs that allows their clients to move between programs, providing continuity of care, all under one roof.

CFS operated out of a rented facility which was in very poor repair, and which they had outgrown. That, coupled with costs associated with rent and building expenses, led the organization’s leadership to consider other options. They wanted to purchase their own building in a safer neighbourhood which would add to their assets and grow their client base without increasing costs. It would also help them to create a welcoming home for their many client groups. The seed for change had been planted, though they didn’t yet have the capital to allocate.

An old school building in a prime community location became available. An initial review of the numbers told senior management that the cost of acquiring and renovating the building would be less than the monthly rent and upkeep of their current building. This purchase would allow CFS to repurpose an important community asset, improve their community facility and, additionally, allow them to partner with an important sister agency, Rygiel Supports for Community Living, an organization interested in purchasing a piece of the school board property and sharing services and infrastructure, a win-win for both organizations.

Around the time of this initial exploration, the Community Forward Fund delivered a workshop to a number of Hamilton-based organizations interested in alternative finance, hosted by the Hamilton Community Foundation, CFF’s local collaboration partner and investor.

Executive Director Linda Dayler met with the Community Forward Fund and shared their goal, which was still only a dream at that point, to purchase their own building to support their many programs and to create a welcoming home for their many client groups.