The Regent Park United Church property will soon become a space for affordable housing units, accessible housing units, market rental units, and community initiatives such as a daycare centre and community gardens.
Kindred Works is spearheading the project; it's a newly launched, independent company that was created by an initial investment by the United Church of Canada. The company hopes to help address the housing crisis in Canada by providing mixed-income homes with the goal of housing 34,000 people over the next 15 years.
“We are looking at how to re-develop church property and keep it in the common good,” explained Tim Blair, CEO of Kindred Works. “We are dealing with some of the big issues in Canada with the housing and climate crisis. We are making sure that we are building affordable and highly sustainable homes across the country.”
There hasn’t been an active congregation at Regent Park United Church since 2018 when the congregation amalgamated with Westmount United Church.
Now, 48 housing units will be built on the property.
“One-third of them would be affordable housing,” explains David Constable, principal at KPMB architects. “Another one-third would be fully accessible housing.”
The goal of KPMB Architects is to keep all the natural attributes of the site and involve all the other community functions that operate out of the site today, such as the daycare, community gardens, and Camp Couchiching.
When the congregation moved, the United Church of Canada had internal conversations about the future of the site.
“It was very much about the site continuing to be a site for ministry,” says Jody Maltby, regional staff lead and communities of faith minister for Shining Waters Regional Council of the United Church of Canada. “The community garden is so important and so is having programs for children and families in this community.”
Maltby says the United Church of Canada is facing a harsh reality that a lot of churches are facing across the country.
“As membership gets smaller and older and it becomes more and more challenging to offer the ministry as they used to do it ... ministry and church is definitely changing," she explained.
All of the affordable housing and market rental units will be built the same, Blair says. Kindred Works is in the midst of going through the planning process with the City of Orillia and are hopeful that construction will begin this year.
“If we get the shovels in the ground this year, we are probably looking at two years for construction, give or take a couple of months,” Constable said. “This is really a great opportunity to bring rental and affordable housing into communities like this.”
KPMB Architects say they are aiming to build the units at a high quality. They are also building homes with sustainability in mind.
“There will be zero carbon on-site,” Constable said. “They will be healthy and comfortable to live in and will use very little energy to operate.”
By 2030, Kindred Works' goal is to produce 80 percent less carbon in construction than today's industry standard.
Maltby says the United Church is aware of the discussions around expanding Orillia’s boundaries and wants to be a good community partner when it comes to the build.
“The only way we can do that is if we provide more housing,” she said. “What I like about this housing is it provides a larger number of families to live in a smaller area.”
The project is being funded via the contribution of the property by the United Church and by Kindred Works funding partners such as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
