Osprey Inspiration and Mitacs Unite to Address Housing Crisis

The housing crisis in Canada has reached a critical point, with many individuals and families struggling to find safe and affordable living conditions, whether they are seeking affordable housing, rental properties, or homeownership. In response, Osprey Inspiration has teamed up with Saint Mary’s University Sobey School of Business to tackle this urgent issue.

Their joint initiative, partially funded by Mitacs, aims to remove barriers to homeownership through financial literacy education, resources, and tailored support programs. In addition to these programs, Osprey Inspiration is developing purpose-built rentals to increase housing availability, awarding bursaries for down payments to purchase homes, and utilizing rent-to-own strategies to help people achieve homeownership faster.

Studies have shown that in most cases, homeownership provides better financial outcomes for families compared to renting. By helping people transition from renting to homeownership, more rental stock will continually become available, and individuals will have the opportunity to achieve their homeownership dreams, which may have seemed unattainable without this support.

Adhering to the adage, “give a person a fish, feed them for a day; teach a person to fish, feed them for a lifetime,” Osprey Inspiration’s focus on financial literacy aims to improve financial success, enabling people to make confident decisions regarding their housing and life needs.

Strong Foundations Through Strategic Collaborations

Founded in 2023, Osprey Inspiration emerged from a philanthropic desire to eliminate down payment barriers for Canadians aspiring to own affordable homes. Launched by a small group of dedicated volunteers, the organization aims to provide individuals and families with the tools and support needed to achieve and maintain secure homeownership.

Derrick Chan, a seasoned realtor and Director of Strategic Partnerships at Osprey Inspiration, brings an important perspective to this mission. His background in real estate allows him to harness his industry knowledge to dismantle barriers to owning a home.

“As a newly established non-profit, Mitacs has been instrumental in launching Osprey Inspiration in the right direction,” Chan says. “It has connected us with highly esteemed professionals who share our passion for housing solutions and social entrepreneurship,” he adds, underscoring his commitment to community and cultural progress.

Empowering Communities

With the aim of boosting public awareness and engagement through targeted marketing and communication efforts, Osprey Inspiration will be implementing strategic campaigns across various platforms and directly interacting with communities to promote money management skills and housing opportunities.

Mitacs interns are playing a vital role in these efforts.

“The expertise of graduate students that have previous work experience but have also gained new knowledge and skills in their program is tremendously important for the project,” emphasizes Chantal Hervieux, Associate Professor at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University.

This highly skilled talent is working to develop essential promotional content, monitor engagement, and host community events and financial literacy workshops for the organization’s homeownership pathway, which includes a bursary program from developers. By utilizing online social channels like LinkedIn and Facebook, coupled with community outreach initiatives, Mitacs participants are aiming to cultivate robust public involvement and foster stronger relationships between Nova Scotian communities and builders.

“And for the supervisor, this is extremely valuable as it helps us to extend our networks and increase the potential scope of our work,” adds Hervieux.

Measuring Impact

Building on its ambitious goals, Osprey Inspiration plans to develop a customized educational framework comprising financial modules and learning materials, in consultation with external financial experts. Also, measurement tools are being created to assess the organization’s financial literacy and bursary programs’ effectiveness in promoting stable and sustainable homeownership.

Instead of builders producing properties based on predicted demand, Osprey Inspiration’s innovative approach involves potential homebuyers as early as the initial planning stages so that realistic housing plans are developed to fit the scope of their needs and their budgets. This collaboration increases affordability and reduces market time, ensuring that homes address the requirements of the community while also easing pressure on the local rental market.

“Mitacs has provided us with extensive insights into the socio-economic housing space and knowledge about which materials are most beneficial for the demographic we serve,” adds Chan.

But support from Mitacs has had a positive impact on all aspects of the work:

“I can unequivocally state that without Mitacs’s funding and support, we would be significantly under-equipped in our ability to develop and deliver quality financial literacy programming to the public, which would, in turn, delay our efforts to help those in need of housing solutions,” Chan concludes.

Mitacs’s programs receive funding from multiple partners across Canada. We thank the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon for supporting us to empower Canadian innovation.

Do you have a business challenge that could benefit from a research solution? If so, contact Mitacs today to discuss partnership opportunities: BD@mitacs.ca.