There’s good news for co-ops who are looking to move forward on their path to sustainability and better energy efficiency.
CMHC recently launched the Canada Greener Affordable Housing Program, which has two streams of funding available to help co-ops and other community housing providers.
The first funding stream is Pre-Retrofit Funding for Multi-Unit Residential Buildings, which can fund up to $130,000 for pre-retrofit activities, like assessing your building’s energy performance through an energy audit and identifying any necessary retrofits. Since many housing coops take advantage of the Preservation Funding to cover the cost of technical reports, this funding may not always be necessary.
The first application window for this stream is closed, but the next one is coming up from 1 November 2023 to 31 January 2024.
The second stream is Retrofit Funding for Multi-Unit Residential Buildings, which provides low-interest, repayable, and forgivable loans for deep energy retrofits. The kinds of projects that this funding is meant to support aim to meet the following criteria:
- 70 percent reduction in energy consumption compared to pre-retrofit performance.
- 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to pre-retrofit performance.
CMHC will fund 100 percent of the eligible retrofit costs up to a total of $170,000 per unit (through a combination of repayable and forgivable loans. Forgivable loans will be $85,000 per unit or 80 percent of eligible retrofit costs (whichever is less).
The second application window is open from September 15, 2023, to December 15, 2023.
To apply for this funding stream, your co-op needs to make sure you have completed the necessary pre-retrofit activities, including Building Condition Assessments and energy audits.
For more information and to apply, check out the Greener Affordable Housing Program page on CMHC’s website.