Nov 19, 2018
Charlie MacArthur is Senior Vice-President of Assisted Housing at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). No stranger to Habitat for Humanity Canada, Charlie has not only seen firsthand the impact the Habitat home, he’s also picked up a hammer and joined volunteers in helping build homes. He says Habitat for Humanity has been a catalyst in shaping affordable housing programs and policy.
“The strength of the organization, the credibility of the organization and the willingness to do the right thing every time makes it easy to work with Habitat,” says MacArthur.
Habitat Canada relies on long-term relationships with dozens of private sector supporters. But it’s the partnership with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that has resulted in a number of significant Habitat initiatives, including Habitat Canada’s Indigenous Housing Partnerships and numerous Habitat build projects across the country.
Creativity is one of the key ingredients that make this partnership work so well. It’s the groundwork for the inventive and innovative approaches to Habitat’s mortgage financing that has helped thousands of Canadian families achieve the goal of affordable homeownership.
Mark Rodgers, President and CEO at Habitat for Humanity Canada says the relationship with CMHC has helped with funding opportunities, research and resources. “But most importantly, they’ve helped us move the needle on some of the big issues and big programs for us,” says Rodgers. “We have served numerous Indigenous families and communities across the country for many years now. And CMHC was really at the foundation of that. They actually were the founders – the sponsors of [Indigenous Housing Partnership] and helped us get it launched. And now we’ve been able to take that and run with it and really engage Indigenous communities across the country.”