The 2023 TD Ready Challenge awarded $10 million in total to 10 Canadian and American organizations focused on addressing barriers to accessing affordable housing

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

Isabella Nasak Kima, [email protected]