St Clares Multifaith Housing Corp
Financial in Toronto

The seeds of St. Clare's Multifaith Housing are found in the group Toronto Action for Social Change (TASC). TASC incorporated a legal entity, applied for a charitable status, and St. Clare's Multifaith Housing was created. No small chore. This was the mid 1990s and social programs and funding for affordable housing were being cut. In the absence of an ongoing social housing program, the challenge was to find a way to secure property, funding and financing. After helping the youth deal with the justice system, TASC started to look for a way to build affordable housing where homeless people could live. TASC was involved with a group of street youth who were arrested for squatting after being evicted from the squat where they had been living. St. Clare's recognized that the costs of building from scratch would be prohibitive, and so the group set about trying to acquire existing properties suitable for conversion to apartments.