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New Tiny Homes Program a Win for Workers, Communities, and the Environment

Feb 13, 2018

Tiny home communities are proving to be a viable affordable housing solution in many parts of the world. In Canada, the tiny house movement addresses several pressing social issues; access to affordable housing, environmental impact, and now, thanks to the innovative new Tiny Homes program from The Centre for Skills Development & Training, even the employment skills gap.

This new program, launched in partnership with The Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar, will provide program participants with valuable new employment skills, while minimizing the waste-to-landfill and carbon emissions created during the training process. In addition, the fully weatherized, CSA-approved, all-season tiny homes built by The Centre will, upon completion, be dispatched to disadvantaged and Indigenous communities around the country to provide people in need with safe and affordable permanent housing.

"We really feel that this program addresses multiple issues now affecting communities around the country" said Rotary Club executive Lauri Asikainen, "Not only will it provide valuable skills training for students, but the homes they create will provide safe, environmentally sustainable, low-cost housing for people in communities who need it the most."

According to Senior Program Coordinator Ellen Faraday, this new program will also make good use of The Centre's resources, reducing the construction training program's waste-to-landfill and carbon emissions. "Before the Tiny Homes initiative, students in our residential construction program would build partial walls or mock houses that would need to be torn down and sent to landfill at the end of each course. Now, these walls will be combined and mounted on a mobile platform to create a modular, movable, permanent home for someone in need."

"Without the help of Rotary Club, GEM Windows and Doors, Turkstra Lumber, and Rush Trailers, this program never would have gotten off the ground"; said The Centre's Manager of Marketing & Communications Dean Lorenz. "We're privileged to have these amazing partners involved and that they saw the same potential in this program that we did. It really is a win-win for everybody."

The following week, John Oliver, MP rose in the House of Commons to recognize our Tiny Homes program in partnership with Oakville Trafalgar Rotary.