The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has announced the finalists for the fourth round of its Housing Supply Challenge, which is a call to action for citizens, stakeholders, and experts to come together and propose innovative solutions to overcome barriers to new housing supply in Canada. With a commitment to making housing more accessible and affordable, the challenge allocates $300 million in funding over a span of five years.
Over the course of six rounds, the challenge aims to tackle diverse barriers related to housing supply, including challenges in building timelines, construction productivity, and the improvement of data on land availability. In addition to funding support, the challenge strives to enhance community engagement, inspire national impact and cultivate collaboration and partnerships.
The Housing Supply Challenge’s Round 4, titled “Building for the Future: Innovative Construction for Housing Affordability,” aims to tackle construction-related barriers to housing supply. The challenge prioritizes solutions that accelerate the creation and preservation of affordable, climate-compatible housing that meets people’s needs. This round of the challenge consists of three stages: concept development and initial application, design and feasibility plan, and final application and implementation.
Below is a list of the shortlisted applicants and their proposals.
- Adaptive Prefabricated Housing for Remote to Rural Seniors & First Nations Communities
- Building sustainable housing in Canada’s north to provide for inclusive climate action that supports our most vulnerable populations
- Breaking Ground: Multi-family at the scale of a single-family lots
- Carbonated magnesium cements from salt water: A pathway to carbon negative alternative cements cast into highly resilient building envelope panels.
- Construct360: The all-in-one construction database and cost estimation toolkit for affordable housing projects in today’s development landscape!
- Construction Cost Set Designer
- Development of Self-Powered Wireless Switches and Sensors for Reduced Wiring Costs and Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- Digital twin-informed engineered timber retrofits for sustainable preservation, upgrading and reuse of existing housing supplies
- Eden Dwellings: Innovating construction technology to empower people with thoughtfully designed homes.
- Guidelines for residential equipment and architectural assemblies to cope with flooding
- Home Relocation & Repurposing Program (HRRP): Providing affordable housing to vulnerable populations by preserving and relocating high-quality homes.
- Housing as a product – Our homes won’t be BUILT; they will be manufactured.
- Innovative Combined HVAC & DHW All-Electric Solution for Net Zero Ready Affordable Housing
- Innovative Formwork Software for Efficient Housing Construction
- Intergenerational apartments: A new type of affordable housing
- ‘Kit-of-Parts’ Platform System (KOPPS) to Provide Affordable, Sustainable and Resilient Housing in Canada
- Lemons to Lemonade – Demonstration project revitalizing on-reserve housing to modern standards to keep Elders and young families in the community.
- Modular single room occupancy co-living housing system
- Moose Cree Housing Design Prototype
- Prefabricated 12-storey Mass-Timber NZE Addition for Existing Buildings
- Scaling Carbon Compatible Housing Production for the Northern Boreal Climatic Region
- Single Stair Alternative Solutions: Construction Innovation for Affordable “Missing Middle” Housing
- Skeetchestn Dodeca-Homes: traditional, customizable ready to assemble modular housing system
- Standardized and configurable multi-manufacturer volumetric construction system for high-volume orders
- Platform for Remote Construction Inspections
Solutions supported in this round are expected to have completed some prototyping and testing and may already be in limited use. The Stage 2 incubation phase allows for further exploration of potential applications, seeking regulatory permissions, and developing business and marketing plans to support wider adoption in the market.
Future rounds are expected to include Scaling Solutions (2023) and Public Perception of New Development (TBD).