Social Housing Services Corporation

Last updated March 05, 2024

The Social Housing Services Corporation (SHSC) operated in the Province of Ontario, Canada between 2002 and 2012 to provide group services for non-profit and co-operative housing organizations following the provincial download of over 270,000 social housing units to local municipalities.

SHSC was created under the Social Housing Reform Act of 2000 ^[1] and became operational in February 2002. The 15 member SHSC board was made up of provincial, municipal, non-profit and cooperative housing representatives. Its mandate was to provide Ontario housing providers identified in the Social Housing Reform Act with bulk purchasing programs in natural gas, insurance and investments as well as training and performance measure programs.

On January 1, 2012, under the Housing Services Act, SHSC became the Housing Services Corporation, continuing its core programs and retaining its governance structure with a new name.

History

In 1997, the Government of Ontario announced that social housing programs administered by the provincial government (public housing, non-profit housing and rent supplements) would be devolved to the municipal level under an initiative called Local Services Realignment.

However, the Government determined that some services should continue to be delivered at a province-wide level to achieve economies of scale. These became SHSC's core programs. Participating in these programs was not voluntary or based on their market competitiveness. Under the Social Housing Reform Act, certain non-profit and cooperative housing providers were required to use these programs. They included group insurance, bulk gas purchasing and a capital reserves investment program. In its later years, SHSC offered an energy efficiency retrofit program that coordinated energy audits, expertise, funding, bulk purchasing of energy-efficient goods, training and education, and data evaluation. It also supported and developed independent housing-related research. With the exception of gas purchasing, these programs were delivered through three subsidiaries: SoHo Insurance, SHSC Financial and GLOBE (Green Light on a Better Environment).

In 2011, the Social Housing Reform Act was replaced by the Housing Services Act, which came into force on January 1, 2012. The Act afforded municipal service managers more flexibility to manage social housing at a local level and to build new affordable housing. The Act also turned SHSC into HSC (the Housing Services Corporation).

HSC continued to deliver the same programs mandated under the Social Housing Reform Act,. However HSC was afforded greater autonomy to design and develop its programs "to support the quality of life for social housing residents" and "the development of affordable housing" per the new legislation. On a practical level, the legislation also strengthened HSC's relationships with municipal service managers. With significant management changes in 2013, there were corresponding changes to the corporation and its subsidiaries.

Subsidiaries

SHSC Financial Inc.

SHSC Financial Inc.(SHSC FI) managed Ontario's Social Housing Investment Program. This program was created as a result of a 1999 Auditor General report on the capital reserves of social housing providers.^[2] SHSC Financial utilized PH&N Investment Services to manage its program and was responsible for client services and education, as well as program oversight. Like the SHSC Board, it was governed by a cross section of Ontario housing sector representatives.

In 2014, HSC expanded the ownership of SHSC Financial to create a pan-Canadian investment entity for non-profit and cooperative housing providers, divesting itself of sixty percent of its subsidiary to the Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada,^[3] the Cooperative Housing Federation of British Columbia^[4] and the British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association.^[5] SHSC Financial became Encasa Financial^[6] and the new board had representatives from the expanded group of owners.

SoHo Insurance Inc.

SoHo Insurance Inc. was an insurance brokerage created in late 2005 to develop insurance products specifically designed to address the needs of Ontario's social housing community. In early 2008, SoHo launched a tenant insurance program – a low-cost insurance option specifically for residents of social housing.

SoHo Insurance Inc. was led by a board of directors made up of representatives from the social housing sector, including municipal service managers, non-profit housing and cooperative housing.

In 2014 SoHo was renamed HSC Insurance Inc.. It subsequently transferred its broker functions relating to tenant insurance to Marsh Canada. HSC Insurance Inc. is a RIBO-licensed broker that collects premiums from the prescribed social housing providers and acts as sub-broker for the mandated insurance program. It also manages claims to HSC's mandated insurance program's Property Claims Trust Fund on behalf of HSC and acts as an administrator to provide tenant insurance for residents of social housing.

GLOBE (Green Light on a Better Environment)

In 2005, SHSC began to investigate the impact of rising utility costs and the opportunities to assist the affordable housing sector in responding to the challenges. SHSC was able win support from provincial agencies and utility companies to establish a pilot program – the Green Light Initiative. The pilot demonstrated a clear need in the sector to invest in conservation and for supports to implement conservation initiatives.

As a result, SHSC launched a subsidiary called GLOBE (Green Light on a Better Environment). GLOBE sought to connect social housing providers, municipal service managers, property managers, and social housing tenants with educational tools and services to reduce energy and water use, including the delivery of energy retrofit programs offered by Ontario utility companies.

HSC brought GLOBE's program/service offerings were brought in-house in 2014 and the subsidiary was dissolved in 2015.

Related Research Articles

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, definitions of poverty, and other criteria for allocation vary within different contexts.

A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative financial institution.

In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help finance new homes and it cannot be used for personal benefit of directors or shareholders. Although independent, they are regulated by the state and commonly receive public funding. They are now the United Kingdom's major providers of new housing for rent, while many also run shared ownership schemes to help those who cannot afford to buy a home outright.

A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Typically housing cooperatives are owned by shareholders but in some cases they can be owned by a non-profit organization. They are a distinctive form of home ownership that have many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family home ownership, condominiums and renting.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is Canada's federal crown corporation responsible for administering the National Housing Act, with the mandate to improve housing by living conditions in the country.

Land Bank of the Philippines, is a government-owned bank in the Philippines with a special focus on serving the needs of farmers and fishermen. While it provides the services of a universal bank, it is officially classified as a "specialized government bank" with a universal banking license.

Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housing". Forms of subsidies include direct housing subsidies, non-profit housing, public housing, rent supplements/vouchers, and some forms of co-operative and private sector housing. According to some sources, increasing access to housing may contribute to lower poverty rates.

Alterna Savings and Credit Union Limited, commonly called Alterna Savings, is a credit union based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In addition to its credit union branches in Ontario, it also operates across Canada through its direct banking subsidiary Alterna Bank.

Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) is a public housing agency in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest social housing provider in Canada with over 58,000 units across 2,100 buildings and approximately 105,000 residents. It is the second-largest housing provider in North America, behind the New York City Housing Authority.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is an agency of the Government of Canada that enforces consumer protection legislation, regulations and industry commitments by federally regulated financial entities. It also provides programs and information to help consumers understand their rights and responsibilities when dealing with financial institutions and promotes financial literacy.

Crown corporations in Canada are government organizations with a mixture of commercial and public-policy objectives. They are directly and wholly owned by the Crown.

Public auto insurance is a government-owned and -operated system of compulsory automobile insurance used in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec. It is based on the idea that if motorists are compelled to purchase auto insurance by the government, the government ought to ensure motorists pay fair premiums and receive high-quality coverage. Governments across the country have used various insurance schemes from full tort to full no-fault in pursuit of that goal.

Public housing policies in Canada includes rent controls, as well as subsidized interest rates and grants. Early public housing policy in Canada consisted of public-private lending schemes which focused on expanding home ownership among the middle class. The first major housing initiative in Canada was the Dominion Housing Act of 1935, which increased the amount of credit available for mortgage loans.

The Haldimand-Norfolk Housing Corporation is a social housing organization providing rental housing for senior citizens, adults, and families.

A health insurance cooperative is a cooperative entity that has the goal of providing health insurance and is also owned by the people that the organization insures. It is a form of mutual insurance.

Non-profit housing developers build affordable housing for individuals under-served by the private market. The non-profit housing sector is composed of community development corporations (CDC) and national and regional non-profit housing organizations whose mission is to provide for the needy, the elderly, working households, and others that the private housing market does not adequately serve. Of the total 4.6 million units in the social housing sector, non-profit developers have produced approximately 1.547 million units, or roughly one-third of the total stock. Since non-profit developers seldom have the financial resources or access to capital that for-profit entities do, they often use multiple layers of financing, usually from a variety of sources for both development and operation of these affordable housing units.

Affordable housing in Canada is living spaces that are deemed financially accessible to those with a median household income in Canada. The property ladder continuum of affordable housing in Canada includes market, non-market, and government-subsidized housing.

Bajaj Finserv Limited is an Indian non-banking financial services company headquartered in Pune. It is focused on lending, asset management, wealth management and insurance.

One in eight Canadian households lived in a residential condominium dwellings, mostly located in a few census metropolitan areas according to Statistics Canada Condominiums exist throughout Canada, although condominiums are most frequently found in the larger cities. "Condominium" is a legal term used in most provinces of Canada. in British Columbia, it is referred to as "strata title" and in Quebec, the term "divided co-property" is used, although the colloquial name remains "condominium".

Affordable housing is housing that is deemed affordable to those with a median household income as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. A general rule is no more than 30% of gross monthly income should be spent on housing, to be considered affordable as the challenges of promoting affordable housing varies by location.

References

↑ "Law Document English View". 24 July 2014.
↑ "Non-Profit Housing – Capital Reserves" (PDF). Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing . 2 November 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
↑ "Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada". chfcanada.coop. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
↑ "Cooperative Housing Federation of British Columbia". www.chf.bc.ca. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
↑ "Social Housing Organization BC". bcnpha.ca. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
↑ "About Us". Encasa Financial.

External links

Housing Services Corporation

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Law Document English View". 24 July 2014.

[2] "Non-Profit Housing – Capital Reserves" (PDF). Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing . 2 November 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.

[3] "Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada". chfcanada.coop. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.

[4] "Cooperative Housing Federation of British Columbia". www.chf.bc.ca. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 2 July 2023.

[5] "Social Housing Organization BC". bcnpha.ca. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.

[6] "About Us". Encasa Financial.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]