What is the You Hold the Key Campaign?

The You Hold the Key Campaign is an initiative started by CHF Canada.  To quote them directly "Canada’s governments need to take action now to keep rent-geared-to-income housing assistance in place for low-income households who will lose it after federal housing agreements end. We’re asking governments to create and fund long-term, cost-shared rent supplement programs, to be delivered by provinces and territories (and municipalities in Ontario)."

What Does This Mean for VCCL?

This means that at the end of our operating agreements with the government, we may no longer be able to offer subsidized housing to our members.

How Can I Help?

Canada’s housing co-ops are facing a severe crisis as federal subsidies for low-income households expire. Send a message asking your MP for action in the upcoming Federal Budget to protect affordable co-op homes.

Click Here to find your local MP and send them an email showing your support of social housing using the template provided

What Are We Doing About This?

Village Canadien Cooperative held a Meet and Greet with the Candidates for all the political parties for our area for the federal election to ask them what they were planning to do about the upcoming housing crisis all non-profits are facing.

We extended invitations to the NDP, PC, Liberal and Green Party Candidates and all but the Conservatives accepted our invitations and explained what they would do to address subsidized housing.

The Bigger Picture

There are 21, 000 low-income households in federally-funded housing co-operatives currently receiving rental assistance. But the federal funding that provides this assistance is ending. A new rent supplement program to replace the expiring subsidies is urgently needed or those 21,000 people may lose their homes.

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