Where solutions meet support

Too often, nonprofit housing providers compete for scarce dollars, limiting their ability to access transformational funding. Without coordination, individual organizations miss out on capital that requires scale, capacity, and shared vision. This fragmentation slows the development of affordable housing, weakens trust among funders, and prevents communities from unlocking the full potential of collective action.

Collaborative Campaigns unite nonprofit housing providers and community organizations under coordinated, large-scale fundraising and investment strategies. Each campaign is launched with seed funding to recruit partners, establish advisory councils, and hire dedicated campaign staff. Campaigns are supported by Partners for Affordable Housing’s national infrastructure, including fundraising, communications, systems, and housing expertise. Campaigns may be regionally grounded or cause-based. By pooling efforts, these campaigns expand access to larger-scale philanthropic, private, and public funding that individual organizations could not secure alone.

Many nonprofit and community housing projects stall before they begin. Early-stage activities like feasibility studies, land due diligence, rezoning, and planning approvals are essential to de-risk projects and demonstrate viability. Without this proof of feasibility, nonprofits cannot access the government or institutional funding required. Yet these early costs are rarely funded, leaving many providers caught in a catch-22: they need feasibility work to unlock capital, but lack the money to complete it. As a result, promising projects are delayed, downsized, or abandoned — slowing the creation of affordable housing when it’s needed most.

The First Mile Fund covers these critical early-stage costs needed to move projects forward. By funding these activities, the Fund removes barriers at the earliest phase of development — where vision, feasibility, and alignment must come together. This early investment helps housing providers de-risk their projects, secure approvals, and unlock long-term financing and government support.

Even the strongest nonprofit housing projects face unexpected hurdles in the final stages. Many projects are missing the last 5–10% of capital that makes the difference between completion and cancellation. Others need additional investment to embed deeper affordability, so that homes remain accessible to low-income tenants for the long term. Nonprofits also struggle to acquire land or properties in competitive markets because they lack flexible, rapid access to capital. When projects are vulnerable to delays, scaling back, or even collapse, communities lose affordable units, nonprofits lose credibility, and scarce public resources are wasted.

The Last Mile Fund provides flexible, catalytic capital to close final funding gaps in nonprofit and community housing projects. By covering the last dollars needed for construction completion, critical upgrades, timely acquisitions, or to deepen long-term affordability, the Fund ensures that strong projects move forward instead of stalling at the final stage.

Across Canada, safe and affordable housing is increasingly out of reach. Rising rents, limited supply, and stagnant wages mean that even working households are being priced out of their communities. A sudden life change — such as job loss, illness, or relationship breakdown — can quickly spiral into crisis, leaving households at risk of eviction or homelessness.

The Tenant Stability Fund unlocks existing rental housing and creates clear pathways to housing stability for vulnerable households. By partnering with trusted nonprofit organizations, the Fund invests in innovative, proven strategies — such as rental assistance, eviction prevention programs, and tenant support services — to reduce barriers to housing and empower households to move forward with dignity.