Office-to-coliving conversions can lead to affordable housing in months, not years.
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 the world, and Toboggan Flats is introducing it to Canada by converting empty office space into coliving housing.
Consistent with The Government of Canada’s National Housing Strategy (NHS), Toboggan Flats aims to help address Canada’s housing crisis by enabling community housing providers to build affordable housing faster, more cost-effectively and in an environmentally friendly way—so that they can pass those benefits along to Canadian renters and communities nationwide.
CMHC is delivering NHS programs on behalf of the Government of Canada.
A solution to the housing crisis: Office-to-coliving conversions
Canada has a housing crisis and historically high office vacancy rates. Toboggan Flats is tackling both of these challenges at the same time.
Their office-to-coliving model provides a faster, cheaper and more sustainable solution for housing. By retaining a building’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems (MEP) and incorporating shared amenities like kitchens and living spaces, this model significantly cuts costs and construction timelines.
Toboggan Flats’ early assessment process quickly evaluates the feasibility of converting vacant offices into affordable coliving units—speeding up housing development nationwide for community housing providers.
CMHC’s support: A vote of confidence for innovation
The funding from CMHC is a testament to the importance of innovative solutions in addressing Canada’s housing challenges.
“Office-to-residential conversions have been around for a long time. But coliving models are the magic to creating good, fast, affordable and eco-friendly housing from empty space,” said Robert Barnard, co-founder of Toboggan Flats. “That’s why I’m so excited about the Turning Empty Offices into Affordable Coliving project—bringing together top community housing experts to assess buildings for community coliving conversions quickly.”
“We’re excited to partner with Toboggan Flats on this innovative project, which aligns perfectly with our mission to create affordable housing solutions for young Canadians,” added Steve Doherty, Executive Director of Youth Without Shelter. “With the support of CMHC, we’re confident this initiative will help address the housing crisis in a meaningful way.”
“Everyone agrees we need more housing—in all shapes and sizes,” added Thom Armstrong, CEO of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC. “We look forward to exploring a new housing option that could quickly deliver more spaces for Canadians to call home.”
Partnerships: A collaborative effort
Toboggan Flats has been working with eleven collaborators to develop the assessment model, including Youthful Cities, Art of Co, Co-Liv, Chandos Construction, Cushman & Wakefield, Arcade with Arcalogix, Finalyze, McCarthy Tétrault, The Mitchell Partnership Inc., LMDG Building Code Consultants and Urban Land Institute of Canada.
Toboggan Flats will now collaborate with six community housing partners across Canada—each bringing unique knowledge and expertise—to help refine and implement the assessment model. These partners, Co-operative Housing Federation of BC, HOUSE Canada, New Commons Housing Trust Society, UWCRC 2.0, YMCA of the National Capital Region, and Youth Without Shelter, collectively provide a wide variety of housing types and will significantly inform their understanding of the complexities involved in developing and delivering affordable housing.
Through these collaborative efforts, Toboggan Flats aims to identify the needs of the community housing sector and explore office-to-coliving conversions as a viable, cost-effective solution for providing affordable housing quickly and efficiently.
The long-term vision: Scaling the solution
This initiative has the potential to expand beyond the initial partnerships, creating a scalable assessment model for affordable housing across Canada.
In the second phase, Toboggan Flats will share lessons learned with a broader audience of community housing providers through workshops, webinars and an interactive online tool.
About Toboggan Flats
Toboggan Flats provides affordable, purpose-built coliving that repurpose vacant office space into shared housing for young workers—downtown, where young people want to live, work and play. Affordable coliving for workers, downtown revitalization for cities.
Media Contact:
Robert Barnard, Co-Founder of Toboggan Flats
robert@tobogganflats.com
www.tobogganflats.com
The Toboggan Flats Demonstration Project received funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) under the NHS Demonstrations Initiative, however, the views expressed are the personal views of Toboggan Flats, and CMHC accepts no responsibility for them.
