Thank you for an eventful year!

As 2024 draws to a close, we’ve been reflecting on the eventful year that The Range has had.

Two years after being established in 2022 by CHF Canada and Housing Alternatives for the creation of a 184-unit sector-led housing co-operative, The Range has been growing and developing in new and exciting ways.

We’re especially excited about the four new accessible units that are under construction. Expanding our community in a way that will allow us to welcome new members with a diverse range of needs and abilities is an important reflection of our values as a co-op.

Similarly, we are also proud of our new partnership with L’Arche to provide supported living arrangements to people in the community with intellectual disabilities. L’Arche is a community of people with and without intellectual disabilities sharing life together, including activities like their artistic day program, Creative Connections.

Reflecting the co-op’s commitment to environmental sustainability, the work to install heat pumps in homes has been ongoing. We are grateful for members’ co-operation with this complex process involving several different stages and contractors.

It has been great to provide opportunities for members to gather this year. The co-op’s first General Membership Meeting took place on June 19th, 2024. The 49 members in attendance approved the 2024-2025 operating budget as well as an Occupancy Agreement and Policy, a Unit Allocation Policy, and a Spending Policy.

Three people sit together in camping chairs under a treeOutside of formal meetings, gathering socially to build neighbourhood ties is also important. The Range hosted a Member Engagement Event on October 23, 2024, with 50-60 members attending. We’re looking forward to more community events to come.

On a wider level, Canada’s co-op sector got some very exciting news this summer, when the federal government announced the largest investment supporting the co-op housing sector in the last 30 years. The $1.5 billion Co-op Housing Development Program will support the development of thousands of affordable rental co-operative homes.

Members of The Range are also involved in the wider housing sector. Three Board Members attended the New Brunswick Non-Profit Housing Association conference in May, and Board Member Kit Hickey was presented with the Gary Glauser Leadership Award. Congratulations, Kit!

Looking ahead, The Range plans to host an official Grand Opening event in the Spring of 2025.

While we’re excited for everything that’s ahead of us in the year to come, we hope everyone takes the opportunity to rest, reflect, and gather with loved ones at the end of the year.