Diversity Scholarship

In 2004, the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto (CHFT) launched the CHFT Diversity Scholarship Program.

The program is for people living in CHFT member housing co-ops. An important element of the scholarship is the strong commitment to diversity shown by the applicants in their communities. Students are awarded their scholarships largely based on their community involvement in their schools, co-op communities and in a variety of community based organizations. To date people from over 108 co-ops have won scholarships.

Housing co-ops are in every neighbourhood in the city. A co-op can be a medium size apartment building or townhouses. People who live in co-ops come from every walk of life.

They are people with different backgrounds, varied incomes and sometimes they are people with special needs. These diverse and vibrant communities are the unique strength of housing co-ops.

There are 17,000 co-op units in the City of Toronto and York Region. Co-ops have both market units and subsidized units. Co-ops call units “market units” if the member is paying the full market price. “Subsidized units” are units where the member is paying only a portion of the full market price. The balance of the housing charge is paid by the subsidy program that the co-op works with.

At the present time, subsidized units are very hard to come by because waiting lists are very long.