A B.C. Community Bonds Over Disaster-Resistant Housing

Kamloops, B.C., a city of 107,000, has mild winters, and chronic flood risks, and sits at the convergence of the North Thompson and South Thompson Rivers. Like many communities in wildfire-prone B.C., Kamloops needs affordable housing that will also withstand climate shocks. 

Those two priorities — cheaper and greener — are behind Propolis Housing Cooperative‘s sales of community bonds, which they offer in cooperation with Tapestry Community Capital, a Canadian non-profit investment corporation based in Toronto.

Propolis is close to selling enough bonds to fund the construction of 50 units. “Our bond offering is open until the end of March,” says Lindsay Harris, the executive director of Propolis, adding that they are nearing their target of $1.1 million. 

Community housing bonds are an emerging trend — a form of social finance that works by enabling residents to purchase shares in a cooperative housing organization, explains Robert Newell, the Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Sustainability at Royal Roads University in B.C. Propolis and Tapestry are among others offering community bonds, including Toronto’s Kensington Market Community Land Trust and Redwood Park Communities in Barrie.

B.C. is home to Canada’s most expensive housing market and is also one of North America’s most wildfire-prone regions — there were 1,757 wildfires over the summer of 2022 alone. The province’s infamous 2023 wildfire outbreak burned 10% of the province’s landmass and forced 33,000 residents out of their homes. The run of recent climate catastrophes was capped off by an atmospheric river in 2024 that caused intense and deadly flooding.

When climate disasters strike (fires or floods), low-income families often don’t have a lot of options for where to relocate, or finances to rebuild. Hence, low and middle-income families will be prioritized in this project, “those especially vulnerable to the affordability crisis,” Harris says.

Propolis tapped NextBuild Construction, a leader in net-zero housing construction, to do the construction. The housing units will feature disaster protection mechanisms such as green roofs, reflective surfaces, robust insulation, rainwater harvesting, and flood-resistant materials to withstand extreme conditions, Harris added.

Monica Bhandari, a fair-housing advocate, and the B.C. leader of the Canada Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, calls the cooperative housing proposal “an interesting solution,”  noting that, “climate change is a lived reality for those seeking secure housing.”

Bhandari has seen up close the anxiety felt by those who've lived through wildfires and other climate events, including a friend who, she says, has experienced multiple evacuations and was on the move for years after. 

Across Canada, “there are hundreds of thousands of people who have to deal with that on an annual basis, and the wildfires have just been getting bigger,” Bhandari says.

Climate-resilient architecture is critical, explains Newell because it brings many benefits, not only in protecting against catastrophic events, but also by offering walkability, local greenspace, and green infrastructure (such as vegetation that performs stormwater and heat regulatory functions). 

The mixed-use property development will entail a 6-story building with 50 net-zero units (ranging from bachelor to three-bedroom suites) of affordable housing, plus commercial space at street level. The non-profit cooporative development will include common gardens, amenity spaces, and a shared vehicle program, according to the project’s webpage. Construction is set to begin in the fall of 2025.

However, social capital alone cannot solve the affordable housing crisis. Building via community bonds is a “small piece of the puzzle,” Newell says. The number of homes they can finance will make up only a fraction of a city's total housing stock. Neverthless, this approach eases two significant problems: the cost of housing and the rising incidence of climate shocks. And it's a more progressive approach than expensive housing financed by big banks and developers.  “Climate-protected, low-cost housing must get priority, and be built at scale,” Bhandari says. “It’s a human right.”

Read about another community bond project in Kensington Market in Toronto.