It is with gratitude for their years of service to the Muskoka Community Land Trust that we announce the departure of Suzanne Martineau and Christopher Jordan-Stevens from the board of directors.

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Jeremy Rand, the Manager of Planning for the Town of Parry Sound. He’s worked as an urban planner all over Muskoka, and is a proud Gravenhurst resident who lives just down the street from me with his young son Atlas.

We’re talking about homelessness…or, more precisely, about how we talk about homelessness, and how our understanding of both the problem and the solution come into focus when we keep the dignity of the people involved at the forefront of our minds.

An update on the evolving plans for Florence Street, Muskoka Housing Task Force 2.0, MCLT’s new podcast, and more.

Since the initial offer of land from the Town of Huntsville, the development concept has changed numerous times, from the first draft of 40 affordable homes for purchase alongside a single G.R.E.A.T. sixplex, to a much more ambitious plan on a larger property with room for with room for at least two G.R.E.A.T. sixplexes plus another 149 units, many of them purpose-built rental housing.

Meet Melinda Zytaruk, board director for the Muskoka Community Land Trust, General Manager of Fourth Pig Green & Natural Construction, and CEO of TookeTree Passive Homes

Finding secure, affordable, and appropriate housing is hard enough. For those with developmental disabilities, plotting a course through the many, many barriers to housing and finding community on the other side is exponentially more difficult.

During the 2023 Rethink Poverty event, organized by United Way Simcoe-Muskoka, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Simcoe-Muskoka Skill Force, and Simcoe County Poverty Reduction Task Group, community organizations including the Muskoka Community Land Trust, Elizabeth Fry Society, Living Wage Ontario, and Information Orillia came together under the theme of “taking the work from talk to action”.

Councillors for the Town of Huntsville voted unanimously on October 25th to review potential development options and the process for transfer of lands to the Muskoka Community Land Trust for the purpose of building an attainable, affordable housing community .

Meet Tatiana Sutherland, board director for the Muskoka Community Land Trust and District and Town Councillor for Bracebridge.

Suzanne Martineau was interviewed for a Global News Story about Community Land Trusts across the country.

In today’s episode I’m joined by Brianna Goslin, who has been working with first time homebuyers in Muskoka since 2021 to navigate rapidly rising interest rates and find original ways to secure and afford housing. While the picture she paints may sound bleak, Brianna articulates a hopeful vision of community care that proves more than one thing can be true at any given moment.

The revitalized and relaunched Muskoka Housing Task Force 2.0 kicked off its inaugural meeting on September 28th, and the Muskoka Community Land Trust is proud to be a member of this energized working group.

It will take a “wartime effort” involving everyone at every level to create enough affordable housing for Muskoka

The Muskoka Community Land Trust is seeking people passionate about creating affordable housing solutions for our community.

We are pleased to announce that the District Municipality of Muskoka has provided seed funding to the MCLT to develop the operational capacity necessary to become self-funding within the next two years.

If we don't start thinking about housing as a social good first and foremost, we are right to anticipate gentrification and displacement with new development; we are right to expect opposition to affordable housing and growth; and we are prudent to prepare to live in an increasingly unaffordable and exclusionary Canada.

Rural communities from coast to coast to coast are realizing that they need to embrace innovation or embrace obsolescence