APCHQ — Co-op Housing Development Program

• The applicant must be a non-profit housing cooperative (new or existing), a housing cooperative for students or elderly people, an Indigenous cooperative, an Indigenous government or governing body, or a land trust in partnership with a non-profit housing cooperative.
• The project must aim to develop a residential complex operating as a rental housing cooperative (collective buildings, row houses, duplexes, etc.).
• The project must focus on new construction (including densification) or the conversion of non-residential buildings into residential buildings, by creating or purchasing a net number of new housing units.
• The residential complex must meet minimum requirements for financial viability, rental affordability, energy efficiency, and accessibility.
• The project must achieve a minimum threshold of housing units (75 in large urban centers, 30 in small and medium-sized urban centers; a lower number may be considered on a case-by-case basis for rural, northern, or remote areas).

Who is eligible?

• Non-profit housing cooperatives, new or existing.
• Student housing cooperatives.
• Housing cooperatives for the elderly.
• Indigenous housing cooperatives.
• Non-profit land trusts in partnership with a housing cooperative.

Who is not eligible

• Cooperatives of owner-occupants (where members own their unit rather than renting).
• Capitalization cooperatives (investment or ownership models rather than nonprofit cooperative rental housing).
• Nursing homes (long-term care facilities such as CHSLDs or equivalents).
• Residential complexes or housing with a lifetime lease.

Eligible expenses

• Essential and ancillary costs related to the development of new cooperative rental housing projects (new construction, conversion of buildings, building renovations), to the extent that they are considered "eligible costs" by CMHC.
• Costs of pre-development activities, when incurred for an approved project, which may be retroactively funded, including: project cost estimates, environmental assessment of the site, and geotechnical report.

Eligible geographic areas

• Businesses and organizations established in Canada, as part of a federal program administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
• Projects located in major urban centers (census metropolitan areas or cities with 100,000 residents and more).
• Projects located in small and medium-sized urban centers (census agglomerations or cities with 10,000 to 99,999 residents).
• Projects completed in rural, northern, remote areas, or in Indigenous communities in Canada.

• Overall financial viability of the cooperative project (ability to be sustainable in the long term).
• Cost per housing unit and size of the residential complex (total number of housing units created).
• Ability to quickly start construction after approval.
• Level of energy efficiency and compliance with the program’s minimum requirements.
• Degree of affordability and presence of housing designed for priority groups or vulnerable populations, including Indigenous, rural, northern, or remote communities.

• Budget 2022 and the 2023 Fall Economic Statement together allocated $1.5 billion to this program to expand co-operative rental housing.
• This represents the largest federal investment in the co-operative housing sector in the last 30 years.
• The program is expected to support the development of thousands of affordable rental co-operative housing units by 2028.
• The program was co-designed with the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada) and the broader co-operative housing sector.