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Margaret Laurence Housing Co-op
Named in honour of the famous Canadian writer,
Margaret Laurence Housing Co-op is a non-profit co-op located at
81 Dalhousie Street in downtown Toronto, (three blocks east of Yonge
& Dundas). The Co-op’s first phase is a 17-storey 133-unit
apartment building that was occupied in 1993. The first phase was
developed with assistance from the Province of Ontario’s Homes
Now Program. The Co-op provides affordable housing to low and moderate
individuals and families, and in particular, the Co-op provides
a welcoming environment to people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Elevator Shafts
Cathedral Properties, the original developer
of the site, intended to build a second building on the east side
of the Co-op. Within the Co-op’s building envelope, but not
originally owned by the Co-op, are the two elevator shafts, lobbies
and stairs intended for the second building. When Cathedral Properties
decided not to build the second building they gave the Co-op the
elevator shafts and lobbies.
The New Units
The Co-op has converted the elevator shafts and
lobbies into sixteen one-bedroom apartments. Access to the new apartments
is from the existing elevator lobby on each floor. The ground floor
is being converted into a bicycle room. The Province of Ontario
is providing rent supplements so that everyone living in the 16
new units can pay a rent geared-to-their-income. Four of the new
units will be offered to clients of the Toronto People With AIDS
Foundation (PWA). Financial assistance for the project is being
provided CMHC’s Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program,
the builder and from the City of Toronto. These sixteen apartments
are the first co-op housing units built in Ontario since the cancellation
of social housing funding in 1995.
Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto
(CHFT)
Since 1975 CHFT has worked to promote and develop
non-profit co-operative housing. A member-funded organization, CHFT
provides education, information, technical assistance to more than
45,000 people living in 165 housing co-operatives in Toronto and
York Region. CHFT provided development consulting services to assist
the Co-op convert the elevator shafts into housing.
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