Blog: Home as community
Walking through the streets of Park Extension, I am struck by its hum: kids racing down alleys, neighbors talking (or yelling) over fences, and the mingling smell of spices from open windows. Chaotic, noisy, alive. Beautiful. Not the beauty of our dream lives, but the beauty of real life: connection, good and bad, spilling into the streets. That’s what I'm going for -- not just buildings, but homes for life itself.
Brique par Brique's mission is simple, but layered: create spaces where people can flourish, and cultivate communities where connections thrive. Housing alone is not enough. A building without residents is just bricks and mortar, and people without housing will disperse, eventually. Together, people and their homes form the foundation for collective creation.
So yeah, housing... but the financial reality is stark. Producing affordable housing requires ingenuity: to build cheaply but well without relying on government funding, to make projects financially sustainable while keeping them accessible to those with limited means... It's a doozer. Real estate is commodified, and so we try to operate differently while using whatever we can from a broken system. Our “profit” is social: stable communities, connected residents, homes where people feel seen and valued, but our costs are financial. A reeeeeal doozer.
Gentrification intensifies the urgency. Once vibrant streets become quieter as rising rents displace long-term residents. Public spaces are policed; private spaces fortified. Life slows under caution and fear. Many residents leave for distant suburbs, or even other provinces, fragmenting networks that took years to cultivate. Home is more than a roof—it is safety, solidarity, and connection. Our work helps residents stay anchored, even as pressures mount.
Collaboration is central. Half of our relationships extend beyond Park Extension. We share staff, space, and knowledge. We support peer organizations, creating a network that allows all of us to accomplish more than we could alone. The community sector is fragmented and competitive; sharing resources is rare. But building housing in isolation is nearly impossible. Collaboration makes the impossible plausible.
Our cultural centre on Beaumont Street positions us between those who can subsidize services and those most in need. We cultivate a class-diverse community, based in solidarity, not charity. By welcoming students, artists, newcomers, and longtime residents, we foster networks that strengthen everyone.
Like I said, building housing is about so much more than building buildings. As we mark National Housing Day, we must shift the conversation. Counting units, square footage, or dollars is not enough. We need to ask: are we building communities? Are we creating homes where people feel heard, included, and useful? Are we fostering networks that allow residents to thrive even as neighborhoods change?
This is the kind of housing that matters. For us at Brique par Brique, building homes is about building communities, building life itself. It is expensive, complex, and exhausting—but the impact ripples far beyond any single street or city. Housing is not only shelter; it is home, community, and a foundation for dignity. And that is work worth doing.
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