Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association

ONPHA launched this Solutions Lab in collaboration with SHS to provide time and space to have critical system-wide conversations about the future of the community housing sector and build a collective vision for a resilient community housing sector for the future in Ontario.

Objective

This project focused on an imminent issue with the Housing Services Act (HSA) funding formula that could put the viability of many community housing providers at risk. Despite its severity and urgency, this issue presents the sector with opportunities to innovate, question assumptions, and envision a new future for community housing in Ontario. This project presented a timely opportunity for the community housing sector to work together to support the development of a new way forward for a sustainable community housing system.

Activities

The Lab events spanned 16 hours of workshops, with 66 unique community housing participants and 14 facilitators across Ontario. The overall methodology was designed as an iterative process, emphasizing building a collective vision for the future through the divergent and convergent steps of the Solutions Lab process. In addition, this Lab drew on systems theory and strategic foresight to equip participants with the tools to map the current system, the “messy middle” where alternative futures exist, and the desirable future scenarios for the community housing sector.

The Lab activities included:

• Hosting an open and collaborative dialogue with both housing providers and service managers around taking collective action toward a resilient community housing sector
• Establishing an understanding of the group’s ambition for change and “where they are ‘at’ today”
• Identifying what might be getting in the way of change and innovation in the housing system in Ontario
• Building some alignment around a collective vision for the future in 2051
• Identifying some of the first steps to moving toward this collective vision