My Future Home Reports speak to the future of housing: community, justice, and sustainability

(Toronto, ON, November 1, 2022) Future Cities Canada, the national cross-sector initiative led by Evergreen and designed to accelerate innovation to transform cities, presents its 2022 report series on its My Future Home workshops. We will start with a summary report – More than Four Walls: Personal Perspectives on the Future of Housing.  

The My Future Home workshops engaged a total of 130 youth, newcomers and older adults over seven events to share their individual and lived experience and insights, a personal perspective often not integrated into housing policy decisions. They were asked to imagine their future, including an exploration of their aspirations and the needs that housing solutions will have to meet in the year 2040. 

In the year 2040, what types of dwellings and environments will we call “home”? Will we all be living in smart homes with automated technologies that anticipate our every need? Or perhaps in communal housing where we have our own bedroom, but share a kitchen, living room, and outdoor space with a broader community of individuals? Or maybe we’ll be living in a completely new way – either underground or in outer space. These are just a few of the ideas we heard! 

We also heard that the following factors are important to individuals: 

• Long-term housing security and affordability; 
• Proximity and access to community, community resources, and to green space; 
• Control over their own space, a space which supports autonomy and independence; and 
• A sense of physical and psychological safety and personal wellbeing. 

“When we think about housing, home and community in Canada, what can lived experience tell us about where we are now and where we should be going in the future? Are we headed in the right direction, or do we have to change course? These are some of the questions Evergreen posed when creating the My Future Home Forum workshop series. In this report, we are thrilled to share what we have learned.”  – Lois Lindsay, Chief Program Officer, Evergreen 

After the release of the More than Four Walls summary, we will release seven more reports, each providing an overview of the insights gained from the seven individual events held as part of this work. We will start with the newcomers reports, followed by the youth reports, and will finish with the release of the older adults reports.  

Access more details and the reports. 

Led by Evergreen, Future Cities Canada, is a collaborative platform founded in 2018 by Evergreen, McConnell Foundation, TD Bank Group, Maison de l’innovation sociale and Community Foundations of Canada.  

Future Cities Canada: My Future Home Reports 

Evergreen Partners: Meridian Credit Union, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, TD Bank Group, McConnell Foundation 

Convened by: Evergreen  

Media contact:  

Jean-Marc La Flamme, Manager, Communications, Evergreen  

jlaflamme@evergreen.ca 

Future Cities Canada is a national cross-sector initiative with the mission to accelerate innovation to transform cities for the benefit of all. Drawing on the expertise of its founding organizations – The McConnell Foundation, TD Bank Group, Evergreen, Maison de l’innovation sociale and Community Foundations of Canada – and together with a diverse and growing network of partners, Future Cities Canada collectively strives to address the challenges facing cities and city-dwellers to reimagine cities that are equitable, regenerative and prosperous. www.futurecitiescanada.ca  

Evergreen is dedicated to making cities more livable, green and prosperous. For 30 years, we’ve been facilitating change in communities through connection, innovation and sustainable actions. We work with community builders across sectors to solve some of the most pressing issues cities face: climate change, housing affordability, and access to nature and public spaces. Through our award-winning programs and collaborative initiatives across the country and at Evergreen Brick Works, our headquarters in Toronto, and through national partnerships with Future Cities Canada, we are building resilience in schools, public spaces, housing and communities as a whole.  

www.evergreen.ca