Permanently Affordable.
Community Owned.
Increasing rents and risk of displacement are making life harder in Waterloo Region. We are working to buy properties for permanent affordability.
We think community ownership matters. Our members live, work, or are connected to Waterloo Region. Learn about how to become a member.
Union Co-operative is a new model for permanently preserving affordability. Learn more about the Co-operative, its members, supporters, and board.
In the News
April5, 2024
Rachelle Younglai and Erin Anderssen, The Globe and Mail
“We know we are losing affordable apartments faster than we can build them,” said Sean Campbell, the executive director of Union Co-operative, a group that recently purchased a 58-unit apartment building in Kitchener, ON and committed to holding rents to allowed provincial increases even if tenants left.
November 30, 2024
Jeff Outhit, Waterloo Region Record.
There are plans for studio apartments all the way to four-bedroom townhouse units. There are plans for outdoor patios, plazas, gardens, parks and bicycle trails as well as ground-floor commercial space and possibly a daycare. Two parking garages are proposed.
The unit breakdown is proposed at 312 affordable rental units, 312 affordable ownership units and 386 attainable ownership units.
February 15th, 2023
Kelsey Rolfe, TVO Today
“The CLT movement has brought attention to the critical importance of community preservation and acquisition of existing affordable housing,” says Kamizaki. “We’re losing more than what’s being supplied. The question becomes, how can we protect existing affordable housing? Because the implications are huge: Once we lose it, what options do we have for existing tenants?”
November 18, 2022
Robert Williams, Waterloo Region Record
Union: Sustainable Development Co-Operative announced this week it has bought two apartment buildings on Lancaster Street totalling 58 units, with plans to build an additional two accessible units in the building’s ground-floor garages.
