The Community Foundation Grey Bruce (CFGB) will further its commitment to investing in local people and ideas with the launch of the Grey Bruce Community Development Corporation (CDC).
The new entity is aimed at fostering economic and community well-being, starting with a focus on affordable housing across Grey and Bruce counties.
“This isn’t about replacing the great work happening in our community,” said Stuart Reid, Executive Director of CFGB. “It’s about helping housing projects move from idea to reality by providing tools, expertise, and connections.”
The Grey Bruce CDC will provide mentorship and technical support for community housing projects.
"We're expecting it'll be a standalone not-for-profit entity, but we're supporting a consultancy that's going to take place over the next year to help build and put together a board and put together the legal trappings that would allow it to be a catalytic player in the local sphere and encouraging more not-for-profit building," Reid added.
Reid explained that the CDC will create opportunities for collaboration between governments, developers, and not-for-profit partners, as well as explore social finance tools such as community bonds to unlock local investment.
"They'd have an opportunity to buy a local bond and put their money into a project locally," he continued. "Still make a profit from it, but know that their investment is doing a good thing in their own backyard, in terms of, you know, lessening the lack of housing and ensuring the economic viability of our region."
The work builds on previous initiatives, including the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay’s Housing and Social Finance Learning Circle and CFGB’s 2023 Vital Focus on Housing report, both of which emphasize community-driven solutions. Reid said they found there is a critical lack of affordable housing in the region.
"We also cited that one in four households in Grey and Bruce counties are not affordable, and more than one in seven residents live in low-income homes," he explained.
To guide the CDC’s development, Ryan Deska joined CFGB as Strategic Initiatives Consultant on Housing on November 1. Deska brings extensive experience in rural housing and community development, including his work with Habitat for Humanity Guelph Wellington on community bonds programs, a project supported by CFGB.
Through the CDC, CFGB aims not only to address pressing housing challenges but also to lay the groundwork for sustainable, community-driven growth.
"We want to see housing that's developed here, but we want to retain the equity and the profit from that activity and use local materials and local labour," Reid said. "And really use this opportunity of increasing affordable housing to really build in community wealth and ownership into the equation."
