What if the answer to Canada’s housing affordability crisis wasn’t a bigger mortgage or a longer waiting list, but a fundamentally different way of living together? For Wendy Reid Fairhurst and a growing group of like-minded families near St. John’s, Newfoundland, that question has been driving 13 years of hard work, creative problem-solving, and genuine community building.
The result is Killick Eco-Village: a 57-acre co-housing project that is rewriting what affordable, community-rooted living can look like in Canada.
A Vision Born from Necessity
When Wendy and her young family moved back to Newfoundland to be closer to family support, they quickly realized that conventional homeownership—despite Wendy already owning a single-family detached home on a half-acre lot—was simply not working for them. With her partner away for work from May through November each year, Wendy was left to single-parent and manage the house, yard, and garden largely alone, with little walkability or community around her. Rather than continue in an unsustainable situation, she started talking about co-housing as something she personally needed—and soon found many others whose current housing wasn’t working either, often for more pressing reasons.
That shared need shaped a core requirement from the start: it had to be affordable, something most other cohousing projects in Canada had struggled to achieve. That challenge pushed the group toward a new model—the Mutual Home Ownership Society, pioneered in the UK—alongside co-housing principles, where residents have private units alongside shared common spaces and participate in designing and governing their own neighbourhood.
After years of organizing, Wendy and her collaborators purchased a 58-acre property in 2021 for $750,000—raising $365K in community investment and financing the rest through a conventional loan Wendy took out personally, with her parents as co-signers. That loan was paid off a year later through the sale of two half-acre lots, one of which Wendy herself purchased when she sold her existing home. The land was successfully rezoned as an ecovillage, allowing for higher density than surrounding properties. The vision, shaped through six months of community meetings using sociocracy and other participatory methods, is now taking tangible form.
Financing for construction is still being secured. The project is currently applying to lenders including VanCity—leaders in community-led housing finance—and still holds out hope that CMHC will show flexibility in the third round of its Co-operative Housing Development Program, recognizing that in smaller provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador, 51 units represents a significant and ambitious project for a rural town of 8,000.
What Is Co-Housing?
Killick takes this a step further by embedding the community within a broader ecological vision, dedicating the majority of its 57 acres to permaculture, pasture, forest gardens, natural waste treatment, and three swale systems. Less than 5 acres will be developed into actual housing.
The Plan: 51 Homes and a Working Landscape
The development is planned in two phases, ultimately delivering 51 homes. Phase one will feature six triplexes and a shared amenities building in what will become the upper village. Phase two adds six six-plexes and a larger shared amenities space for the lower village. Together, these form two distinct but connected neighbourhoods embedded within a living, working landscape complete with ducks, chickens, beehives, and a small lake.
BSH research manager Alina McKay visited the Killick site at this year’s Canadian Housing Renewal Association congress. Perched on a hillside with sweeping views of the ocean and Bell Island and 20-minute drive from downtown St. John’s, the property already pulses with life. It is easy to understand why members are so committed to seeing this vision through.
A Financial Model Built for Inclusion
One of Killick’s most innovative features is its Mutual Home Ownership Society structure. Rather than selling units at market price, the model allows members to own a share of the co-op and hold a long-term lease on their home. Fees are calculated as a percentage of income, making the community genuinely accessible to households earning anywhere from $10,000 to $140,000 per year.
Members pay a base $550 per month that covers daily operating costs, with additional payments going toward a loan tied to their home’s value. Once a member has paid off the value of their unit, they pay only the monthly community fee. If a member leaves, they receive their equity back along with a percentage linked to wage growth, ensuring they are not left behind financially.
This structure also enables cross-subsidization, so that during difficult times, the community can weather financial hardship collectively. It is a model that invites real commitment and, in turn, creates real stability.
Funding Gaps and the Road Ahead
Like many innovative housing projects, Killick has had to navigate the mismatch between its ambitions and the funding programs available to it. The society applied to CMHC’s Co-op Housing Development Fund but was denied because its 51-unit count fell well short of the 100-unit threshold the program requires. This is a frustrating barrier for smaller-scale community projects that may deliver outsized social value relative to their size.
With $15 million committed from Vancity, the project is seeking an additional $5 million to break ground. That final funding push stands between a dream 13 years in the making and the first residents moving into their new homes.
A Different Way of Asking the Question
Wendy’s larger vision extends well beyond Killick. She sees co-housing as a pathway to getting Canada to 20% affordable housing, driven not just by policy but by a cultural shift in how people think about where and how they want to live. Co-housing invites people to ask different questions: not just “Can I afford this unit?” but “What kind of community do I want to be part of?”
Killick Eco-Village is proof that those questions lead somewhere real. It just takes time, persistence, and a lot of good neighbours willing to build something together.
Learn more: killickecovillage.ca | For community-led development tools: reclaim-cdo.org
Examples of Urban Co-Housing Projects
Village Urbain (BSH researcher Dr. Nik Luka has partnered with Village Urbain to explore their co-housing model. Stay tuned for more!)
The Balanced Supply of Housing (BSH) is a SSHRC-CMHC funded partnership grant led by Dr. Alexandra Flynn at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, focused on land use and housing financialization across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
