Community bonds create more housing options in Haliburton County

• Fay Martin founded Places for People to address the lack of affordable housing opportunities for residents in Haliburton County.
• Since 2007 Places for People has created homes for more than 24 families.
• Places for People is deeply committed to their community and their projects are financed primarily through local fundraising.
• Tapestry Community Capital has helped Places for People take their fundraising to the next level.

Strolling through your neighbourhood, you turn the corner and see a building. In the yard, a small group of children play hopscotch; the smell of clean laundry wafts through the air. You immediately feel a sense of pride—after all, it’s a scene you helped to create. This is the philosophy behind Places for People, a non-profit organization in Haliburton County, Ontario that creates affordable housing and supports for some of the county’s most vulnerable tenants.

Founder Fay Martin has been doggedly keeping the organization afloat for more than 15 years. What began with the renovation of a heritage building badly in need of repair, has evolved into a portfolio of 12 rental properties across Haliburton County’s 4 municipalities. The latest development is a multi-unit project in Carnarvon.

In 2018, Jody Curry teamed up with Fay as president of the organization. Fay and Jody are the first to admit that none of their achievements would be possible without a supportive and devoted community. Community support drives everything they do—something they were able to take to the next level, through a collaboration with Tapestry Community Capital.

The story of Places for People

Haliburton County has a population of 20,000 thinly spread over 4,000 square kilometres and the primary economy is tourism.

“In the summer the population swells about fivefold and creates some real dilemmas,” says Fay. “There’s a real economic disparity between the people that live here year-round, who make a living out of [the] seasonal recreational economy, and the people who can afford second homes.”

Fay founded Places for People in response to this dilemma.

We focused on community resources to create the kind of housing that we needed.

The organization’s first property was located in one of the county’s main villages. It was a building that carried historical significance for the community. But it was also in poor condition and needed a complete renovation.

Places for People needed $20,000 to qualify for a mortgage, so Fay reached out to the community for support and raised the funds, in exchange for promissory notes.

“We didn’t want to wait for government funding. We focused on community resources to create the kind of housing that we needed.”

It’s a system that has become the lifeblood of Places for People. The organization has been able to achieve what it has by raising funds from Haliburton County’s residents, charitable organizations and community groups. Since its creation, the organization has housed 24 families, including 37 adults and 54 children.

Envisioning a bigger future

During the pandemic, the rise in remote work created an influx of residents from large urban centres keen to take advantage of Haliburton County’s housing prices, which are still lower than in places like Toronto. The economic gap between the year-round residents and the seasonal visitors increased and with it, the area’s affordable housing challenges.

The role of Places for People was becoming increasingly important.

Still, creating more affordable housing projects would require larger sums of money.

Enter Tapestry Community Capital.

Investing in the community

Founded in 2018 Tapestry Community Capital is a non-profit organization that helps organizations to raise capital for projects through community bonds.

We guide groups through the process, from assessing the fit of the funding model, to structuring the investment, all the way through to administering the bonds.

Similar to traditional bonds, community bonds are an interest-bearing loan from an investor, which has a set rate of return and a fixed term.

The monetary return on investment on community bonds is not always as high as for stocks or other investments but can provide something greater.

“We see that investors want a financial return, but they also want to do good in their own communities,” says Stephanie Pinnington, communications specialist, Tapestry Community Capital. “They want to feel good about where they’re money is going.”

Stephanie says their group helps to transform ‘social capital’ into ‘finance capital.’

“We guide groups through the process, from assessing the fit of the funding model, to structuring the investment, all the way through to administering the bonds.”

Organizations can spearhead their own fundraising campaigns and sell community bonds themselves, but when they work with Tapestry, they gain an immense amount of experience. Tapestry has helped social purpose organizations to unlock over $120 million, which has supported the funding of 62 impactful projects across Canada.

“That’s an important part of why Tapestry exists,” says Stephanie. “We help groups to develop their offering statements, term sheets and make sure they’re legally compliant and that they’re disclosing all risks to investors.”

Tapestry initially focused on community projects in the renewable energy sector.

Their first project was a wind turbine in downtown Toronto. More than 600 community members invested to raise the funds needed to create it. This was followed by other energy projects focused on solar energy and bioenergy and the team soon realized that this form of innovative financing could be applied to many sectors, including affordable housing.

They [Tapestry] helped us run a very effective investment campaign, which was new to us… They taught us how to speak about our vision and mission, which helped us to get the media attention we needed.

“We started to receive interest from groups that had an idea for a project but faced challenges to secure the financing to bring it to life,” says Stephanie. “Often, they can get a loan or a grant for a portion of the project, but there’s usually a gap that’s holding them back. We think that community bonds can fill that funding gap.”

Forty percent of new project applications received by Tapestry over the last 2 years were related to housing.

Two of the biggest pain points that Tapestry sees for non-profit housing providers, is securing funding during the pre-development phase and exploring innovative avenues to enhance community engagement.

To help explore solutions, they applied for Round 2 funding of CMHC and Impact Canada’s Housing Supply Challenge.

One of 14 finalists, Tapestry is excited to develop and test their solutions. The funding they have received has enabled them to help organizations like Places for People that aren’t able to run a major financing campaign on their own.

For Fay and Jody, community bonds were the perfect fit.

“It’s very much in line with how we’ve been able to grow over the years—by engaging our community of supporters,” says president Jody Curry.

The majority of investors are community members. During the last campaign, more than 80% of bond holders were either Haliburton County residents, people with cottages in the area, or family members.

It changed the way we see ourselves. We’re no longer alone in believing in ourselves, others believe in us too!

Tapestry’s expertise has been invaluable to Places for People. It has helped to increase the organization’s exposure and enhance their reputation.

“What was really wonderful was Tapestry ran alongside our bond race,” says Jody. “They helped us run a very effective campaign, which was new to us. They shared best practices at every stage. They taught us how to speak about our vision and mission, which helped us to get the media attention we needed. We were on national TV news!”

Fay believes that Tapestry’s support gave them greater confidence in their abilities.

“People were saying, Wow, what you’ve done is incredible! It changed the way we see ourselves. We’re no longer alone in believing in ourselves; others believe in us too!”

As a result of working with Tapestry, Fay, Jody and their team met their goal of raising $850,000 in community bonds. They also achieved this in record time - slightly less than 3 months, the quickest raise to date in Tapestry’s history.  This money enabled the organization to better position itself to create new affordable housing within Haliburton County.

KEY FACTS

• Places for People creates and manages affordable housing projects in Haliburton County, Ontario.
• Tapestry Community Capital helps organizations such as non-profit housing providers to realize community projects using community bonds. They provide guidance on everything from structuring and administering the investment to launching a campaign and delivering the bonds.
• Tapestry Community Capital was one of 14 finalists in Round 2 of CMHC and Impact Canada’s Housing Supply Challenge. The program challenges housing experts and professionals to develop innovative solutions to housing issues.
• The challenge is part of Impact Canada in collaboration with the Impact and Innovation Unit in the Privy Council Office and Infrastructure Canada.

SEE ALSO

• [VIDEO – ENGLISH ONLY] “Places for People raises $850,000 for affordable housing | Tapestry Community Capital”