On June 1, 2023, CMHC launched a new time-limited program to support to support community housing providers—including housing co-operatives— with deep energy retrofits (i.e. ≥70% reduction in energy consumption and ≥80% in greenhouse gas emissions).

Canada Greener Affordable Housing

The Canada Greener Affordable Housing program helps affordable housing providers—including housing co-operative— complete deep energy retrofits on existing multi-unit residential buildings.

The program includes a pre-retrofit funding stream for studies, as well as a retrofit funding stream to assist with financing the actual work through forgivable and other loans. We anticipate this program would work best for a co-op using currently using natural gas for heating and which has had limited or no envelope improvements over the last couple of decades.

Highlights

• CMHC will fund 100% of eligible retrofit costs, up to $170,000 per unit (low-interest repayable and forgivable loans combined). Forgivable loans will be the lesser of: $85,000 per unit, or 80% of eligible retrofit costs. Low-interest loans will be available to finance the rest.
• For pre-retrofit activities, the maximum contribution is $130,000 per project.
• The project must be primarily residential and have at least 5 units or beds. Single detached dwellings, duplexes and townhouses must be at least 10 years old. Mid- to high-rise, low-rise and multi-plex buildings must be at least 20 years old.
• Applicants must meet a municipal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous government or CMHC program affordability criteria.
• Applicants can also follow other affordability criteria such as rent-geared-to-income, low-income, moderate-income, established income or rent limits/thresholds.

For more information, please see this PDF or register for one of the upcoming webinars hosted by CMHC on June 8 or June 15.