Hello,

In the spirit of spring, we are sharing new growth from Hey Neighbour Collective: a recap from our most recent webinar (with several resources), a report that is striking a chord with our community on aging in the right place, and some opportunities to share your experience and join conversations on different types of housing, including multi-unit dwellings and co-housing.

We hope you are soaking up the regenerative energy of the season.

All our best,

The team at Hey Neighbour Collective

Untangling the affordability puzzle with Happy Cities and Chesterman Properties: webinar recap

During the third in our ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinar series, we hosted Madeleine Hebert of Happy Cities and Robert Brown of Chesterman Properties for an in-depth discussion about design practices that help make buildings more socially connected and the multiple financial levers available to support affordability for multi-unit rental projects. Over 200 participants joined from all around the world! Our webinar recap post includes the Zoom recording, speaker slides and other resources mentioned by presenters and participants. We’ve also collected a few memorable excerpts from the conversation.

Aging in the right place, designing housing for wellbeing and older adults

This project – a collaboration between Hey Neighbour, Happy Cities, and SFU’s Department of Gerontology – builds on decades of research expertise and knowledge on social wellbeing in multi-unit housing, at a time when older adults (55+) are the fastest-growing segment of the Canadian population. 

We shared this report a few months ago when it was published, but it is getting read and commented on from people around the world, so we thought it was worthy of another newsletter mention!

Hey Neighbour Collective in the news

How to build a friendly building

We’re grateful, once again, to be featured in this The Globe and Mail piece by Frances Bula alongside our partner Happy Cities and the incredible work of FLUID Architecture, Urbanarium, and more. (This article is behind a paywall, but Bruce Haden kindly shared the text on LinkedIn!)

The happier missing middle: Lessons for building an urban cohousing village, a webinar by Happy Cities x Tomo Spaces

Our partner, Happy Cities, is hosting an online event on May 30th to share the challenges and successes of Our Urban Village Cohousing, a missing middle, cohousing lite project in Vancouver. Happy Cities recently completed a CMHC-funded research study on the wellbeing benefits of living in a mutually supportive multi-unit community. During the webinar, dive deep into discussions about the complexities of approving and building cohousing and missing middle housing. Featured speakers include the developer, Tomo Spaces, plus MA + HG architects, and a resident from the community.

Opportunity to share your thoughts

University of Toronto outreach survey - Examining Residents’ Perception of Housing

University of Toronto researchers, Dr. Marianne Touchie and Dr. Alstan Jakubiec seek insights on the experience of living in different housing forms, from multi-unit residential buildings to single-family homes. The primary goal of the study is to uncover the environmental, economic, and social aspects of housing design that are most significant to residents. Eligible participants will receive a $10 Amazon e-gift card for their participation if they complete the survey and provide their contact detai

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