APCHQ — Affordable Housing Innovation Fund

• The applicant must be a housing provider such as a municipality, province or territory, private-sector developer or builder, non-profit or community housing organization, Indigenous government or organization, or another entity interested in developing and testing innovative affordable housing approaches.
• The project must focus on affordable housing and demonstrate that units will remain affordable for at least 10 years, according to applicable municipal or provincial affordability criteria (or CMHC’s determination where none exist).
• The proposal must clearly incorporate an innovative solution for affordable housing (e.g., new building techniques, financing models, designs or technologies) that is scalable and/or replicable.
• The applicant must demonstrate the financial sustainability of the project, including availability of required financial resources and a path to reducing or eliminating reliance on government subsidies.
• The applicant must provide a Knowledge Transfer Plan explaining how project learnings, results and best practices will be captured and shared with the broader housing sector and decision-makers.

Who is eligible?

• Municipalities, provinces and territories
• Private sector developers and builders
• Non-profit housing providers
• Community housing organizations
• Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations

Eligible geographic areas

• Housing providers located anywhere in Canada.
• Municipalities, organizations and projects situated in Canadian provinces (e.g., Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba).
• Municipalities, organizations and projects situated in Canadian territories (e.g., Nunavut).
• Communities across Canada that have submitted Community Encampment Response Plans through the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampment Initiative.

• Level of innovation demonstrated by the housing solution (transformational, breakthrough or incremental).
• Strength of the project’s affordability model, including duration and depth of affordability.
• Financial sustainability of the initiative, including reduced reliance on ongoing government subsidies.
• Quality and robustness of the knowledge transfer plan (sharing lessons learned, supporting replication and scalability).
• Contribution to broader program priorities, such as meeting housing needs of priority populations, improving accessibility, promoting partnerships, enabling scalability/replicability, and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

• Applications are accepted and reviewed on a continual basis, with funding announcements made periodically until all funds are committed or until 6 years from 2022.
• Priority is currently given to projects that can rapidly deliver units using modular or prefabricated construction to address homelessness, including in communities with approved Community Encampment Response Plans.
• If a proposal meets the criteria, it will be evaluated by industry experts from within and outside CMHC, from sectors such as finance, academia, innovation, construction, engineering and government.
• CMHC requires the right to use information and ideas submitted in applications for research and evaluation purposes, and applicants may be asked for additional documentation or clarifications during assessment.