Bannerman Green Housing Co-op Suspends Plans for Construction

Bannerman Green Housing Co-op announces with regret that we have suspended plans for construction of a 26-unit housing co-op. This decision was reached at a membership meeting on January 15, 2025. Many factors contributed to making the project unfeasible at this time: a protracted design and development process due to the COVID pandemic, construction cost estimates that doubled during the development period, a lack of government funding incentives, a changing development framework that favours larger projects and projects related to homelessness, and a deteriorating political climate for sustainable and co-op housing.

After thoughtful consideration, the executive and membership came to the difficult decision that the project could not proceed.

Background

Over the past five years, Bannerman Green Housing Co-op Inc. has been exploring the development of a sustainable, urban housing co-op in the North End of Winnipeg, part of a response to Canada’s net-zero carbon goals. A few neighbours discussing housing options for the area quickly grew to a membership of over 120, mostly from the St. John’s community. A 26-unit co-op was planned, 12 units on a vacant parcel of land, and 14 units in nearby existing homes that would be retrofitted. We raised over $750,000 in pre-development funding. We hired architects and engineers, a construction manager, co-op consultants and Passive House consultants and set about designing a small scale sustainable urban housing co-op as a prototype for the redevelopment of mature urban communities. We formed potential partnerships with social housing providers such as ILRC, IRCOM, MCC, Kinew Housing and New Journeys Housing. Working with the consulting team and contractor through 2024, we produced numerous revisions trying to fit the project into a changing funding landscape, construction cost climate and political requirements. In the end, it appeared that a confluence of extenuating factors had made a small-scale, extremely sustainable urban project unfeasible in today’s financial, environmental and political climate.

Next steps

The Bannerman Green website will be available for information, but we will not be accepting new members, and email will not be checked regularly.

Funds that members paid as a deposit on units were held in trust and have been returned.

A group of Bannerman Green members has met three or four times a year through the course of this project to read and discuss books exploring the realities of climate change and our social and individual response to it. The book club is continuing. Members and friends have received an email inviting them to add their names to a contact list for information about future gatherings.

Members of Bannerman Green wish to express deep appreciation to all who devoted their time through the last five years to serve on the executive and various committees. We are especially grateful to Dudley Thompson for his vision, expertise, leadership, and hard work. As a community, we have benefitted enormously from this project, making new friends in the neighbourhood, learning about the concrete steps that can be taken to reduce the carbon costs of housing, and finding common cause and support in face of the climate crisis.

Documenting the Journey

Case Study: A detailed and illustrated narrative of Bannerman Green has been prepared by Dudley Thompson, tracing the inception of the project, the phases of its development, its design, its sources of funding, and reflecting on the strengths and challenges of the project. That document is provided here for the benefit of members and friends, and in the hope that other groups carrying on the work of adapting housing to our changing climate might find insights and inspiration through Bannerman Green’s experience.

[The Journey Towards the Development of a Neighbourhood Housing Co-Operative: A Case Study]