The Centretown Plan

In the mid-seventies, neighbourhood and community groups all over North America realized that they had to defend their communities from the development of high-rise office buildings and the threat of highways. In Centretown, the Centretown Citizens Community Association (CCCA) Planning Committee worked with the City of Ottawa to hire a consultant to develop the Centretown Plan. With community members involved as fully as possible in the process, the Plan outlined a vision of a thriving downtown neighbourhood. It called for intensification, but on the neighbourhood’s own terms, without sacrificing the character of Centretown. The two main goals of the Plan were to:

• Maintain and enhance the residential character of Centretown while allowing a moderate increase in population
• Accommodate persons of all age groups, income levels, cultural backgrounds, lifestyles and household sizes wishing to live in Centretown with good quality, affordable housing.

To achieve these goals, the plan laid out proposals related to future development and land use, transportation systems, housing, heritage, community facilities and services, and commercial areas.

CCOC is Born!

CCOC began in 1974 as the offshoot of the CCCA, when the National Housing Act introduced a provision which would allow community groups to establish non-profit housing corporations. CCOC’s founders had three major goals:

• provide affordable family housing in Centretown
• make sure that Centretown would stay residential
• give tenants control of their housing

Between 1974 and 1977, CCOC acquired its first 9 properties, with a total of 43 units located in row houses, duplexes and triplexes. In 1978, the purchase of 258 Lisgar with 87 units in an 11 storey building provided CCOC with the size needed to hire its first employee and establish an office. And in 1979 CCOC completed its first construction development with 22 units in an elevatored building at 50 James.

From the beginning, CCOC committed to involving both tenants and the broader community internally in its governance structure and externally in its community development functions. During these early days, many volunteer hours were put in by board members and staff, since the organization’s size did not support the resources needed to get the job done. Surprisingly, many of these founding CCOCers are still involved, more than 30 years later!

By the end of the 1970’s, CCOC had 12 properties with a total of 165 units.

Growing like a weed!

By 1982, CCOC had built or acquired 10 more buildings, more than doubling its size to 367 units, with a broad mix of building and unit size. Development of 42 stacked rowhouses on the site of the former Percy School led to two firsts: our first wheelchair accessible units and our first design award. Staff functions were formalized and policies established to guide the growth.

In keeping with its community roots, partnerships with other agencies developed as housing needs were identified for people with mental illness, physical disabilities, addictions and those living with HIV/AIDS and the chronically homeless. The late 80’s saw CCOC signing agreements with agencies like Upstream, Serenity House, Cornerstone, Personal Choice for Independent Living and Bruce House, where CCOC built or provided the units, and the service agency provided the supports needed by their clients.

CCOC continued to explore ways of involving tenants in managing their housing, and in building community. A monthly newsletter was developed, along with a tenant handbook and calendar. Special events were held regularly to foster community—bowling nights, barbeques, garage sales and family parties. Landscaping and gardening were encouraged, and the first rooftop planters were established in our multi-storied buildings.

On the political front, by 1987 the federal government had abandoned its funding programs and the province had stepped in to develop its own programs and rulebook. CCOC became engaged with other housing providers at the local, provincial and federal level, and continued its advocacy work for successful, sustainable program funding. With our President, Derek Ballantyne, we were instrumental in helping found the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) in 1988.

By the end of the 1980’s, CCOC had 744 units in 34 properties.

Changes in the political landscape

Provincial funding for housing lasted until 1995, and from 1990 to 1995, we added 463 units to our stock. In 1995, the provincial government cancelled the program to build new housing.

Most housing providers simply gave up on developing new housing. With CCOC’s size and its collateral assets behind it, we were able to cobble together deals with other partners to continue to build, but at a much slower pace. Between 1995 and 2000 there were only 2 new projects: 455 Lisgar with 41 units and a 6 unit rooming house on Eccles Street.

As CCOC reached the milestone of 25 years in operation, we were recognized with several awards: the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association 1999 award of excellence; Canadian Housing and Renewal Association’s 1999 Lifetime Achievement award to Catherine Boucher, our Executive Coordinator, and certificates of appreciation from partner agencies Personal Choice for Independent Living and the Canadian Mental Health Association.

As the number of units grew along with the geographic area where our buildings were located, CCOC’s efforts at community building expanded beyond our tenants. Working with the Centretown Community Health Centre we were involved in developing the Ottawa Good Food Box program, a non-profit community-based initiative bringing neighbours together to buy a variety of delicious and nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables at wholesale prices. We helped to found Growing Up Downtown, a community-based initiative that offers support to families with young children who face barriers to healthy child and family development. We worked with Raising the Roof, a national charity dedicated to long term solutions to homelessness. And we started a community picnic.

By the end of the 1990’s we had a total of 1254 units.

Building our own future

CCOC is one of the largest private non-profit housing providers in Canada, and one of the only ones to maintain a Development department. With over three decades of experience building and managing non-profit housing, we are recognized as a leader and innovator.

Within the constraints caused by the lack of funding programs for new housing, we continue to build creative projects. As housing prices rise in Centretown and this area becomes more attractive to private developers, we have had to look further afield for properties that fit our limited budget. The City of Ottawa has become an increasingly important partner in housing—providing land and relief from fees. We redeveloped the Stirling Tavern into a two-storey walk up with 10 units. Our two most recent projects were infill development of townhouses, stacked townhouses and duplexes, providing family housing in the western part of downtown at Merivale & Mayview and Richmond, Midway & Hartleigh. The Richmond Road project won two awards: the City of Ottawa’s Award of Merit for infill design and the Ontario Architectural Association’s award of excellence.

Our Executive Coordinator Catherine Boucher was also celebrated in 2004 with ONPHA’s Sybil Frenette Outstanding Leadership Award. She has been with CCOC since 1978; has been our Executive Coordinator since 1988; has chaired the board of ONPHA and has served on the board of the Canadian Housing Renewal Association (CHRA – the federal housing association).

With over 1,300 units, CCOC continues to look for new opportunities for development, while facing some sobering long-term challenges.

First, the federal funding that allowed us to acquire and build in the 1970’s and 1980’s included operating agreements that provide subsidies for our tenants. When our mortgages expire, these operating agreements and the subsidies will also expire. While we work to pressure the federal government to continue to invest in housing, we must explore a future with no sources of funding other than the rents paid by tenants. While we won’t have the cost of the mortgages to pay, we’ll still have to pay for maintenance and repairs, and all of the other costs of running a housing corporation (taxes, administration, utilities and services, etc.) Along with all Canadian housing providers who have operating agreements with the federal government, we are running the numbers to figure out how we can accomplish our mission to provide affordable housing under this scenario.

Second, we are looking at how we use the planet’s resources and trying to become more energy-efficient and earth-friendly. At the community level, this means promoting energy efficiency, recycling, composting and gardening to our tenants and advocating for transit. On a larger scale, this means looking at retrofitting our buildings and developing standards for future developments that use options such as grey water recovery, district heating, green energy and other sustainable systems.

We continue to work with the broader community, with a community garden and an outdoor summer film festival called Centretown Movies. And we continue to participate in housing advocacy with all levels of government.