How NHA Defines Success in Our Mixed-Income Model

You’ll hear a similar refrain in almost any industry: “know who you serve so you can serve them exceptionally well”.

And it may seem strange or even frustrating at first, but this is important even for housing providers like NHA, in order to ensure the success of our model and ultimately, the success of our residents.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

NHA’s model of housing is a mixed-income, non-profit, association. We are overseen by a Board of Directors and a voting membership, and the primary function of our staff is to provide quality, community housing. We do this by preserving purpose-built rentals and improving/maintaining them with a social approach to rentals and a unique 50-50 model, whereby half of our residents pay rent geared to their income regardless of current market rates.

Looking at the work we do through this lens, it’s important to understand who we serve – and who we serve well. By the very nature of the description above, the limits to our purchasing or developing power, and the expertise of our in-house resources, you start to see that it would be nearly impossible for us to serve everyone. 

In short? NHA can’t be all things to all people.

So in order to ensure we serve who we serve exceptionally well, we’ve had to get very clear on who that is! And where we sit on the housing wheel (see image below). If you look at the image below, NHA sits between the green and yellow, or the two bottom sections, offering both subsidized rental housing and market rental housing.

We’re landlords in the strictest sense of the word, but we’re so much more than that. We’re also stewards of community, protectors of community housing assets, and deeply invested in the outcomes of our residents.

NHA is not positioned to provide emergency or transitional housing – we quite literally do not have the resources or capacity to provide these essential services. We are not equipped with the training or resources, do not have the in-house staff or the government funds, to manage the unique and specific needs of a community requiring emergency and transitional housing. 

That work is EXTREMELY important, I think we can all agree on that (perhaps now more than ever), and we work hard to support our sector partners who do that work. But it’s important to share that it’s not what we do, it’s not what we are setup to do, and we wouldn’t be positioned to do it well without a major overhaul of our model.

So who DO we serve? And who do we serve WELL?

First of all, and possibly the biggest factor, is that NHA serves individuals and families that have the ability and means to live independently. That doesn’t exclude folks who require in-house supports! It just means that these folks are able to manage their households and personal needs, pay rent on time, operate under the good neighbour agreement and foster healthy neighbour relationships, and maintain their unit in good conditions without support from the organization.

Secondly, we serve people who can advocate for themselves and engage with the association as well as other supports, whenever necessary. Our hope is that people will remain housed with us as long as they’re comfortably able and willing, and this is often predicated on engagement and advocacy for themselves and ensuring that we continue to create a community that serves each of our residents as best as we can.

And thirdly, NHA serves folks who understand our unique model and see the value in it, who both champion it to some degree, and feel excited by the opportunity to contribute to a varied and engaged community. That goes for both our below-market renters and our social-impact renters!

Each of these terms is laid out and discussed with residents before they move in – and conveyed to partnering agencies whenever applicable – because we believe transparency is key to everything we do as a non-profit with big values (and big heart, if you don’t mind us saying so ourselves!).

When it comes to the success of each of our residents, we are deeply committed to ensuring that we know who we are and who we serve so that we can journey with residents as needs shift and change and ensure that everyone in our community is thriving.

It’s a delicate balancing act, but we’re always striving to do better. Success for our residents IS our success as an organization and the first step of that success is making sure we are clear on who we serve best.

If you are curious about making your home with us, please first give this blog post a read.