——SS In view of these advantages in social values and economic savings why do we not have more of this type of housing you may ask. The answer to this question lies in several _ problem areas. No government in Canada, except perhaps Nova Scotia, has seriously attempted to encourage Co-operative housing. In fact, the way the National Housing Act is administrated actually discourages Co-operative housing. Only in recent years have some attempts been made by the Federal Government to experiment with these new ideas. The project of United Co-operative Housing Society received a seven percent interest long term mort- gage loan under the “Innovative Housing Program”’ administrated directly by the previous Minister re- sponsible for Housing, Robert Andras. Also a grant of $50,000 to the Co-operative Housing Foundation of Canada was given by the Federal Government. With this “large sum’’ plus other non- government contributions the Foundation, which has its Head Office in Ottawa, attempts to promote Co- operative Housing all across Canada. To our best knowledge the lending of mortgage money to some projects and the mentioned grant as well as some “‘local initiative’? and ‘‘opportunities for youth” grants by the Federal Government is the sum total involvement of the federal government in Co-operative Housing in Canada. Our Provincial Government is sympathetic but has not extended one penny to the furtherance of Co- operative Housing. For the 60 to 75 percent of Canadians who cannot find suitable housing and see Housing as a National problem equal to Unemployment, National Defence or Balance of Trade problems, these government’s inactivity must seem unexcusable. However, such is the mentality of politicians in control — that they see housing as a commodity that is to be merchandized by private business even though the failure of this policy is obvious. To produce an effective stock of Co-operative Housing for those people who cannot afford housing on the open market today but have too high an in- -come to qualify for the insufficient number of subsi- dized housing we need support on various levels: Groups of people who come together to build their own homes co-operatively cannot be expected to have the expertise to bring a project together. Housing is an extrernely complex field where even “experts” have only a partial understanding of their particular little specialty. It requires, therefore, a group of dedicated experts who can work together to initiate and carry a project through to completion. To build up such a team and make it work requires money for office, personnel, hiring of professional advise and optioning of land. Since Co-operatives and Societies that could sponsor co-operative housing projects cannot make a profit (according to their legal charter) like a busi- ness, equity, investment funds cannot be found. Also those who usually have investment funds available are unlikely to be particularly sympathetic to en- courage effective competition in housing by non- profit organizations such as a Co-operative Housing Society. Only government funds can therefore be expected in large enough quantity to provide for such a nucleus of experts. In addition, the Central Mortgage & Housing IS CO-OP HOUSING THE AN . RPM Se ee mF A \ hod — Fe _- ‘ey ; an KS ~ >» * See vreer 5 as foe, 4