The 2023 grant recipients are focused on providing solutions
that address systemic barriers to affordable and stable housing and
help increase access for those who need it most
TORONTO, March 5,
2024 /CNW/ - TD Bank Group (TD) is pleased to
announce the 10 grant recipients of the 2023 TD Ready Challenge, an
annual initiative that seeks to support non-profit and charitable
organizations involved in developing innovative, impactful, and
measurable solutions for a changing world.
The problem statement for the 2023 grant was focused on finding
innovative solutions that address systemic barriers to affordable
housing across the continuum from transitional to permanent homes,
and to help increase access to affordable and stable housing for
those who need it most.
"The TD Ready Challenge is one of the key ways we are delivering
on the Bank's purpose to help enrich the lives of our colleagues,
customers and communities, and a prime example of our commitment to
help people thrive in a rapidly changing world" said Janice Farrell Jones, SVP of Sustainability
& Corporate Citizenship at TD. "We are very proud that this
year we're able to help enable 10 incredible organizations to scale
their efforts to contribute to much-needed access to stable and
affordable housing for communities facing barriers."
With housing costs at an all-time high in Canada and the U.S., many face challenges and
barriers to accessing affordable housing. These can include:
- Racialized communities
- Indigenous communities
- Seniors
- Families with children, especially those headed by single,
women of colour
- Newcomers
- Veterans
- Low-income communities
- People with existing health conditions and/or disabilities
"We know that having a safe and stable place to call home is
central to overall wellbeing. The lack of affordable housing causes
serious ripple effects that impact everything from health outcomes
to educational opportunities, to overall financial security," said
Shelley Sylva, Head of U.S.
Corporate Citizenship at TD. "Boosting access to affordable housing
helps strengthen communities and helps them prosper in a way that
can lead to sustainable economic growth. I'm so proud to see how
this TD grant program has grown and evolved over the years and how
TD stands behind the grant recipient organizations dedicated to
helping build a more equitable world."
The TD Ready Challenge is part of the Bank's longstanding
commitment to helping create a more inclusive and sustainable
future, and a signature program within its corporate citizenship
platform, the TD Ready Commitment. Each year, the TD Ready
Challenge invites eligible organizations to submit applications
that offer solutions to a problem statement that is connected to
one or more of the four drivers of the TD Ready Commitment:
Financial Security, Vibrant Planet, Connected Communities and
Better Health. In previous years, the TD Ready Challenge problem
statement has focused on helping to address the challenges of
climate change, drive more equitable health outcomes, income
stability, and most recently to help address pandemic-related
learning loss.
This year's problem statement also helps deliver on the Bank's
Social Framework, TD Pathways to Economic Inclusion, which focuses
the Bank's efforts on improving employment access, financial
access, and housing access.
For 2023, there were 10 grants available under the TD Ready
Challenge across North America.
Eligible Canadian-based organizations were able to apply for
CDN$1 million and eligible US-based
organizations were able to apply for USD$1
million.
To learn more about the 2023 TD Ready Challenge grant recipients
and the TD Ready Challenge Grant program, visit
www.td.com/readychallenge.
Learn more about the 2023 TD Ready Challenge recipients below,
as they describe their winning submission in their own words:
Recipients:
Washington Housing Conservancy - Housing + Mobility + Equity
Accelerator (HMEA) (Washington,
DC, U.S.)
"The Housing + Mobility + Equity Accelerator (HMEA), a project
of the Washington Housing Conservancy (WHC) was developed to
provide other cities with a blueprint for preserving affordable
workforce housing. HMEA is uniquely focused on scaling WHC's model
and increasing the supply of affordable rental apartment buildings
for residents at greatest risk of being displaced from economically
thriving neighborhoods."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://washingtonhousingconservancy.org/
Raising the Roof | Chez Toit -
Reside: Empowering Marginalized People to Prevent Homelessness and
Create Affordable Housing (Canada)
"Reside is an innovative program that renovates vacant and
underused properties into long-term affordable homes for people who
need them. It extends its social impact by using the renovations as
an opportunity to provide supportive training opportunities in the
skilled construction trades for people facing systemic barriers to
employment and who are homeless or at risk of becoming
homeless."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://raisingtheroof.org/reside/
National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders
(NALCAB) - Empowering Latino Households: Building, Preserving, and
Paving the Way to Affordable Housing Success (Texas, U.S.)
"NALCAB proposes a solution to address systemic housing
exclusion for Latinos and has developed a coordinated trinary
approach to advance economic mobility through affordable housing:
Production, Preservation, and Pipeline (financial readiness). This
project focuses on the third, and most important element of the
strategy: building the financial wellness of
potential homebuyers and renters."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://nalcab.org/
The Native Women's Shelter of Montreal - Maison Miyoskamin (Quebec, Canada)
"Miyoskamin is a supportive housing program located in downtown
Tiohtià:ke/Montreal providing 23
subsidized apartments for Indigenous women and their children. In
addition to stable and affordable housing, Miyoskamin offers
individual and empowering healing plans supplemented by
educational, vocational, and cultural programming, as well as an
on-site Community Social Pediatric Centre called Saralikitaaq."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://www.miyoskamin.com/
Clarifi - A Multi-Intervention Strategy to Combat Barriers to
Affordable Housing (Pennsylvania,
U.S.)
"Clarifi is proposing a multi-intervention strategy to address
barriers to affordable and sustainable housing for low-to-moderate
income individuals and families in the Greater Philadelphia area. Home ownership,
home repair and financial resilience grants magnify the impact of
our foundational financial empowerment counseling, equipping
residents with more resources to overcome various housing
affordability challenges."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://www.clarifi.org/
Blue Door Support Services - Housing for All: Increased
Affordable Housing and Tenant Supports (Ontario, Canada)
"To address the housing crisis, Blue Door's Housing for All
Community Land Trust will create and hold affordable housing across
York Region in perpetuity. Simultaneously Blue Door will pilot
Dwell, an opportunity for individuals to build equity as tenants,
ultimately addressing systemic barriers to affordable housing and
increasing affordable, stable housing for our community's most
vulnerable."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://bluedoor.ca/
The Community Builders (TCB), Inc. - HOME ROOM: Economic
Stability and Mobility Through Housing (Massachusetts, U.S.)
"TCB's HOME ROOM initiative will address the needs of residents
facing chronic housing instability across two states and set them
on a path to lasting housing and financial stability through a
two-part approach, 1) Construction: increasing the supply of
permanent supportive and affordable family housing, and 2) Wealth
and Housing: place-based housing stability and economic mobility
services through Community Life (CL)."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://tcbinc.org/community-life/
WoodGreen Community Housing - Affordable Housing Equity
Jenga-Fund (Ontario,
Canada)
"WoodGreen proposes an equity fund - the Affordable Housing
Jenga-Fund - to provide start-up bridge financing to non-profits to
steward, anchor and lead public, private partnerships to develop a
new generation of much needed affordable housing.
Learn more about this program
URL: https://www.woodgreen.org/
Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida - NHSSF Evergreen Initiatives:
Preserving Homeownership by Dismantling Energy Inequities in LMI
Communities of Color (Florida,
U.S.)
"This initiative aims to dismantle energy inequities by
expanding the green initiatives portfolio for the LMI BIPOC
community, which includes catalyzing adoption of energy efficiency,
clean energy, water conservation, and resiliency measures. It also
includes all of NHSSF's business lines - from housing counseling,
homeownership promotion and preservation, real estate development,
and lending."
Learn more about this program
URL: https://nhssf.org/
Fred Victor - Housing Hope: A
pilot project to address systemic barriers and preserve rooming
houses as deeply affordable transitional housing for homeless
newcomers and refugees (Ontario,
Canada)
"Fred Victor is proposing a
three-year pilot that will retain rooming houses as a vital stream
of affordable housing and meet the growing demand for transitional
housing for homeless newcomers and refugees in Toronto. It addresses systemic challenges in
affordable housing supply by leveraging a unique moment of new
inclusionary zoning and municipal policy for rooming houses."
Learn more about this program
URL:
https://www.fredvictor.org/what-we-do/housing/
About The TD Ready Commitment
TD has a long-standing
commitment to enriching the lives of its customers, colleagues and
communities. As part of its corporate citizenship platform, the TD
Ready Commitment, TD is targeting CDN $1
billion in total by 2030 towards community giving in four
areas critical to help open doors for a more inclusive and
sustainable tomorrow – Financial Security, Vibrant Planet,
Connected Communities and Better Health. Through the TD Ready
Commitment, TD aspires to link its business, philanthropy and human
capital to help people feel more confident - not just about their
finances, but also in their ability to achieve their personal goals
in a changing world. For further information, visit
td.com/tdreadycommitment.
About TD Bank Group
The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its
subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group ("TD" or the
"Bank"). TD is the sixth largest bank in North America by assets and serves over 27.5
million customers in four key businesses operating in a number of
locations in financial centres around the globe: Canadian Personal
and Commercial Banking, including TD Canada Trust and TD Auto
Finance Canada; U.S. Retail, including TD Bank, America's Most
Convenient Bank®, TD Auto Finance U.S., TD Wealth
(U.S.), and an investment in The Charles Schwab Corporation; Wealth
Management and Insurance, including TD Wealth (Canada), TD Direct Investing, and TD
Insurance; and Wholesale Banking, including TD Securities and TD
Cowen. TD also ranks among the world's leading online financial
services firms, with more than 17 million active online and mobile
customers. TD had $1.91 trillion in
assets on January 31, 2024. The
Toronto-Dominion Bank trades under the symbol "TD" on the
Toronto and New York Stock
Exchanges.
SOURCE TD Bank Group