Reimagine Foundation is a British Columbia non-profit working to relieve housing insecurity and isolation, and to advance what's known about building affordable, accessible, community-based homes. We are our own organization, with our own purposes and governance. This is the full story, in our own words.
I've been thinking about this for a long time, but it really came into focus over the last few years.
When I got divorced in my mid-30s, I was raising my child on my own and didn't have much support. Asking for help was hard. Even when people were willing, I still felt like I was imposing.
Now my child is in their early 20s, and it's been really hard to find a living situation that actually works. We've tried a few different setups — living with me, living alone, roommates — and none of them have really felt sustainable.
It's not that they're not capable. It's that the options are so limited and kind of rigid. You either fit into what's out there, or you don't.
And once I started really paying attention, I realized how many people are in that same gap. People coming out of high school without a clear path. Families dealing with mental health challenges without much of a support network. Deaf seniors placed in long-term care homes where they can't really communicate with anyone around them. Deaf young adults trying to figure things out after school without much in place for them.
A small building to begin with — four to six homes, whatever the land allows. Nothing institutional. Just a place where people can live near others who understand them a bit better.
Not forced programming, not a big system — just something that feels more natural and human.
If it works, then build another one. And another.
Reimagine Foundation is a new organization. Everything we are set up to do serves one aim: relieving the hardship of isolation and housing insecurity for people the housing market leaves behind, and advancing public understanding of how affordable, community-based housing can be built. These are the specific activities we carry out to get there.
Because we are early in our work, some processes are still being finalized; where that is the case, we say so.
What we do: We acquire land and develop small "micro community" buildings — typically four to six homes — of affordable rental housing in British Columbia, beginning in the Metro Vancouver area.
How we do it: We identify and assess suitable sites; use standardized, government-backed designs from the CMHC Housing Design Catalogue to lower costs and speed approvals; raise the funds; and build in partnership with experienced construction firms, including Reimagine Construction. Site selection, budgets, and major decisions are approved by the board of directors.
Who carries it out: Volunteer directors oversee and make decisions; construction and housing partners design and build; paid staff will be added as the organization grows.
Where: British Columbia, starting in Metro Vancouver.
How it advances our purpose: It creates the affordable, connected housing that relieves isolation and housing insecurity for the people we serve.
Who benefits: People who fall through the gap between living entirely on their own and fully supported care — for example, young adults transitioning to independence, single-parent families, people with disabilities (including neurodivergent people), Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who face communication or accessibility barriers, and seniors experiencing housing insecurity or isolation. Belonging to one of these groups does not by itself make a person eligible; each housing program has written criteria tied to the specific charitable need it addresses.
How residents are selected: Through a written application process based on documented need and suitability for the particular program, applied consistently and reviewed by the board. Housing is never reserved for directors, their relatives, or donors, and a donation gives no priority for housing.
Fees: Where housing is provided to relieve poverty, rent is set below fair market value, and the board documents how it was determined. The exact rent model is being finalized, with the goal of remaining accessible to people on low and modest incomes.
Who carries it out: A property manager will handle day-to-day operations and maintenance, overseen by the board of directors.
How it advances our purpose: Operating the housing over time keeps it affordable and genuinely supportive, not just built once and forgotten.
What we do: We provide practical education to help people obtain and keep stable housing — covering topics such as tenancy rights and responsibilities, budgeting and financial literacy, planning for independent living, and finding housing and community resources. We also openly share the building designs, cost information, and practical lessons from our work so that other communities and non-profits can build similar housing.
How we do it: Through workshops, small-group sessions, presentations, and plain-language written and online resources. We set the subject and learning objectives in advance, and materials are reviewed before they are shared. Sessions are led by knowledgeable volunteers, qualified professionals, or contracted instructors. Some programs begin with residents and prospective residents; materials useful to a wider audience are made public.
Fees: These resources and sessions are provided free to the public.
How it advances our purpose: It advances public education about affordable, accessible, community-based housing.
What we do: We conduct research on affordable, accessible, and community-based housing, and share the findings publicly. We use the word "research" carefully: routine monitoring of our own projects is not research. A research project has a defined question, a planned method, appropriate expertise, analysis, and public dissemination.
How we do it: Before starting, we prepare a written research plan setting out the question, why it matters to our purpose, the method, the information collected, who conducts it, how it is analyzed, any privacy and ethics considerations, and how results will be shared. We follow the principles of the Tri-Council Policy Statement for any research involving people, participation is always voluntary, and findings are published — as reports, summaries, or articles — even when they don't confirm our assumptions.
Who carries it out: Directors lead this now, working with qualified researchers or partner organizations as the work grows. No formal research partnership is in place yet.
Fees: Research findings are made publicly available at no charge.
How it advances our purpose: It advances public knowledge of how to design and deliver affordable, accessible housing. This part of our work is still being built up as we grow.
Part of our work is putting clear, practical housing information into people's hands at no charge. These guides are published by the Foundation and available to the public — with more to come.
Deposits, rent increases, ending a tenancy, and getting your deposit back.
Getting ready for your first place — budgeting, what you'll need, and starting well.
How subsidized housing works, help paying rent, and who to call for support.
We've been reaching out and have been lucky to connect with people in construction and housing who are open to this idea — including our building partnership with Reimagine Construction.
There are also things happening at the federal level that make this more possible than it used to be. CMHC has released standardized building designs that can speed up approvals and reduce costs, which helps.
We've set up Reimagine Foundation as its own organization and are applying to the Canada Revenue Agency for registered-charity status, so there's a proper structure behind this. The Foundation is a separate legal organization from Reimagine Housing Society — it has its own governance, accounts, and decision-making. The two may collaborate where doing so advances the Foundation's charitable purposes, but the Society has no automatic access to Foundation resources, and any material arrangement is documented and reviewed on its own terms.
The directors are a founder with lived experience as a single mother, her adult daughter, and a close friend — also a single mom raising a daughter making her way in the world. This is coming from lived experience on multiple fronts. It's not abstract for us.
Raise $4 million for the first project: buy the land and build the first homes. Land is expensive. Building is expensive. We're determined to find a way. After that, we repeat the model — because we know people need options.
A lot of connection has moved online, but that doesn't replace having people nearby. People you recognize. People you can talk to, even casually.
This is our attempt to create more of that in a real, physical way.
Get in touch so we can start building together — as a donor, a partner, or a neighbour.
