Rent being absolutely out of control and everyone struggling to afford housing from the poor to the upper middle class, I'm kind of surprised that I never hear anyone talk about cooperative housing as an option.

Where I live, there are multiple co-ops, and not only is the rent incredibly low for members, but it also helps to keep pricing down in the area.

Personally, I didn't even know it was something that existed until a social worker mentioned it to me as a potential option when I was looking for a new apartment (at the time I was a jobless single parent taking fulltime vocational studies so things were as tight as they could get). I applied to 3 different coops and luckily I managed to get a spot in one.

For reference, I am a member of "Les Co-ops de habitations des Cantons de l'est" in Sherbrooke Québec. Our co-op consists of 244 units in multiple buildings across the city. I live in a fairly large 2-bedroom apartment that is in, I think it's called a quadplex? My rent contract is for about $770 per month, and as a member of the coop, this is reduced an additional $230 per month (ish). Electricity, water, heating included.

The organization is non-profit. There are no landlords. The rent pays for overhead and also is invested back into the buildings we own. Every coop functions a bit differently, but generally all decisions and work on the property are the responsibility of the members. Functionally, all the residents are partial owners of their building.

Sure, dealing with expectations of your neighbors to be responsible and participate comes with its own problems and annoyances, but it's still a viable option to the alternative. For myself, this really gives me a good chance to get out of debt and provide for my kids after a very difficult period during the pandemic, and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity the coop has provided me.

I know housing coops exist across the country, but again I just never hear a single word about it from anyone, and after my experience, I just don't understand why it isn't at the very least part of the conversation when discussing the issue of housing in Canada.