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Margaret Laurence Housing Co-op:
Converting Elevator Shafts into 16 Affordable Apartments

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.   24 hour housing information 416-465-1309 Email: info@coophousing.com