An examination of alternate financing for co-operative housing

The past decade has seen the emergence of an increasing housing problem characterized by constraints on accessibility to homeownership and a rental sector frustrated by prohibitively high development costs. In addressing this problem this thesis proposes that co-operative tenure be pursued as an affordable alternative to the traditional forms of ownership or rental tenure. The historical struggle for legitimation of co-operative tenure in government housing policy has more recently resurfaced with the Federal Government threatening to curtail funding to the Co-operative Housing Program. This thesis contends that the future of the co-operative housing movement in Canada lies in the extrication of the movement from its current dependence of substantial government subsidies. It is proposed that this objective be pursued through innovative financing methods. Data from a recently developed co-operative project have been utilized in base case simulations with various financing techniques. Both Price Level Adjusted Mortgages and bond financing were found to be effective in overcoming the prohibitively high housing charges necessitated for a multi-family co-operative housing development to be economically viable without government assistance through direct grants or loans, or indirect tax benefits. The nature of these two financing techniques would however still require government support in the form of loan guarantees, bond issue, and legislative amendments. This thesis concludes with the proposition that through the adoption of innovative financing the co-operative sector could move toward a position of greater independence. Concurrently, government could utilize indexed mortgage financing to increase cost effectiveness and targetting of existing social housing programs.Applied Science, Faculty ofCommunity and Regional Planning (SCARP), School ofGraduat