ONPHA’s 2022 New Year’s Resolutions
2022 is almost here. What are your New Year’s resolutions?
At ONPHA, we’ve been winding down the year by taking stock and celebrating our collective ‘wins’ from 2021. It was a year marked by many challenges, but ultimately these difficulties stretched and grew us in new ways, and brought us to place of transformation. Celebrate and reflect with us by reading our year-in-review blog post.
We have a solid foundation to build on, and we’re in a strong position to make even more progress in 2022. Now, we’re looking ahead at ways we can keep the momentum going. So we made a list of our New Year’s resolutions. Take a look and get a sneak peek at some of the exciting initiatives we have coming down the pipe!
We resolve to: Advocate for stronger provincial housing commitments.
2022 is a provincial election year. We proved that we’re stronger together during the federal election, as we joined forces with our national partners on the Vote Housing campaign. A robust and coordinated advocacy push led to all major parties adopting key aspects of the campaign’s recommendations.
We know another collaborative approach will serve us well as the provincial election kicks off.
We’ll be advocating alongside our partners for strong housing commitments from all candidates, including a new regulation for a flexible, simplified, current and predictable funding model.
We’ll also be amplifying the need to keep ‘community housing’ and ‘deep affordability’ a part of the publics’ broader conversation on housing affordability. Too often, ‘housing affordability’ is referred to only in the context of market housing and home ownership. We’re working hard to shift how Ontarians think and talk about housing affordability, by raising more public awareness of our sector’s key role in solving the housing crisis.
We resolve to: Bring Indigenous housing issues and solutions to the forefront.
In the spring of 2020, ONPHA launched the first-of-its-kind Urban and Rural Indigenous Housing Plan. It shows that the province needs to build at least 22,000 subsidized Indigenous-owned and operated units over the next decade to address housing need.
Now that we’ve done the work in identifying the issues and calculating the needs, we’re taking action.
In 2022, we’re launching the Urban and Rural Indigenous Housing Implementation Plan, which shows a clear path forward to address core housing need among urban and rural Indigenous communities. This thorough and important piece of work gives us exactly what we need to bring to government and achieve buy-in on all levels.
The Implementation Plan was shaped by engagement sessions with Indigenous housing providers led by Daniel J. Brant and Associates (the team that developed the initial Plan), with financial support from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Community Housing Transformation Centre.
This important work aligns with ONPHA’s continuing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will play a key role in our provincial and federal advocacy efforts.
We resolve to: Deliver even more support to members’ bottom lines.
We know our members’ budgets are stretched. While we remain hopeful, we expect 2022 will come with some of the same operating challenges we saw in 2020 and 2021, as we continue to move through the pandemic.
We’re glad to see that many ONPHA members have found cost savings through our purchasing program ONPHA Select. Last year, we welcomed several new partners, offering exclusive member deals on services including HR consulting, ergonomics, and water management solutions, to add our already robust roster.
In 2022, we’re making exciting improvements to the program to bring more support to members. We’re partnering with Round Table Procurement Services on something new for the sector that will increase your purchasing power significantly, open up more choice, and help members achieve deeper discounts on essential goods and services.
We’re also excited to launch a new and improved Group Benefits program through ONPHA Select partner HUB International. Members will have access to more competitive and stable benefit rates thanks to the combined purchasing power of ONPHA.
We resolve to: Keep members up-to-date with new learning opportunities.
The world moves faster today than ever. The only way to keep pace is through continuous learning – and we have several new opportunities coming up! We’re kicking off the New Year with an important webinar to get members ready for the new Ontario Non-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA).
We’ll also launch a suite of online courses on topics including rent-geared-to-income administration, supportive housing core competencies, and good governance practices.
In the fall, we can’t wait to welcome delegates both in-person and online for the 2022 ONPHA Conference, which brings together housing providers, sector partners, and government representatives.
One of the best ways we learn is from one another! That’s why we’re continuing to employ technology to bring the sector together. We’re looking forward to launching the new ONPHA exchange program, which will open up opportunities for broader online engagement between members and sector partners.
Thank you to our members and partners for another great year. Together, we have the strength, passion, and skills to make meaningful change in 2022. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the community housing sector. From the entire ONPHA team, we wish you a Happy New Year!
Join us in making 2022 a pivotal year for ONPHA and the sector. If you’re not yet an ONPHA member, connect with us at membership@onpha.org to find out how your organization can benefit from our purchasing program, educational offerings, member support, and more.
Questions about our upcoming educational offerings? Contact us at member.support@onpha.org.
