Robert Barnard

In the face of a mounting housing crisis that is hitting young people especially hard, Robert has applied his 30 years of experience to launch #TobogganFlats. It brings affordable co-living for young people to repurposed vacant office space. In 2012, Robert co-founded Youthful Cities to amplify the power of urban youth globally. Using his three decades of experience in youth engagement and innovation, Youthful Cities focuses on the critical nexus of youth (15-29 yrs) and cities. After all, if cities are the world's progress engine, youth are the engineers.

Wait, what DRAG show?!

He dropped in a bedroom like it was a couch in The Sims. One drag. One click. Boom—the shell of an empty office floor started to look like a flat where young workers could actually colive. That’s how the energy shifted during our live walkthrough of the Toboggan Flats pre-assessment tool, Co-Convert Compass. In minutes,

From 13 roommates to housing innovator. Meet Nathi!

Register for webinar 1 Register for webinar 2 Thirteen people. Eleven bedrooms. One questionable house in North York. That’s where Nathi Zamisa lived during their undergrad. Illegal under the bylaws? Probably. Tight squeeze? Definitely. But it was also full of late-night hangs, collective rent battles and chosen family vibes. Now, as Co-Executive Director of Housing

Which party has the keys to affordable youth housing?

An election platform says much about what a political party thinks will win them votes. And if we had to guess? They might be betting that young people aren’t paying attention this time. They may not be wrong—some stats suggest fewer than half of youth voted in the last federal election. But here’s the twist:

Are Canadians becoming homebodies?

We recently read  “Why America is Turning Into a Nation of Homebodies” from Fast Company. It got us thinking about Canada.  The trends highlighted in the piece aren’t unique to our southern neighbours; they’re happening here too. Between remote work becoming the norm, online shopping replacing errands and streaming services keeping us glued to our

Toboggan Flats turns empty offices into housing with the community housing sector thanks to CMHC

Office-to-coliving conversions can lead to affordable housing in months, not years. *Aussi disponible en français Through funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Toboggan Flats has initiated its Demonstration Project, Turning Empty Offices into Affordable Coliving, to bring a new affordable housing option to the community housing sector. Coliving is already popular all over