Solutions Labs

Solutions Labs provides funding that allow housing stakeholders across Canada to co-develop solutions to challenges in housing like:

• affordability 
• social inclusion 
• northern and remote supports 
• Indigenous housing 
• environmental sustainability 

The program requires applicants to seek out and partner with experts in the design and implementation of solutions labs on their team. The teams are made up of diverse stakeholders—including those with lived experience and expert innovation consultants.  

Together, they will problem-solve using an innovation lens and the tools and methodologies that have emerged from social innovation labs. 

The team will use an inclusive process. This fosters a ‘ground up’ approach to understanding and addressing key barriers to solving complex and persistent affordable housing problems. They will: 

• examine and reframe current housing issues 
• use innovative problem-solving processes  
• co-develop potential solutions to be prototyped and tested  

The teams in the labs will lead to the development of solutions to identified housing issues within the National Housing Strategy’s key priority areas. Potential solutions may include: 

• emerging technologies 
• best practices 
• innovative policies 
• programs 

Solutions Labs will be a catalyst for driving action and innovation in the affordable housing sector. It enables opportunities to enhance sector viability and sustainability by providing roadmaps from successful solution development to full-scale uptakes.