The Green Violin Way
The Context
Green Violin is a new not-for-profit developer of affordable housing in Edmonton, who wants to test new ways of engaging neighbours in the communities where they want to build affordable housing, and new ways of engaging potential residents, in the earliest stages of development planning.
Questions being explored include:
How can we provide affordable housing that is well integrated into the surrounding neighbourhood and welcomed by neighbours?
How can we use existing urban infill lots that are only 50 feet wide with infill apartments for affordable housing while providing community programming spaces for social connectivity between residents and neighbours?
Green Violin’s objectives are:
To increase the supply of much needed housing affordability while honoring the community needs and community voices and adding to neighbourhood wellbeing.
To be present on the land (in the community) before determining where to place our projects; to be active on the land once we have identified it (vacant lot); and to direct the stewarding of the project in a good direction after construction is complete.
To create the space for existing neighbours and new neighbours to find their Connection and Balance (while making room for each other) following the RECOVER wellbeing framework.
Relation to RECOVER’s Wellbeing Framework
Targeted Outcomes: connection to body & self, community, and land & ground
Tools/Levers: interactions & environment, roles & resources, and routines & repertoires
What We Did
The Green Violin team and RECOVER worked together to build out a series of storyboards to describe interactions with different audiences in the early development process. The storyboards described the interactions between;
Green Violin and potential future residents - including needs assessment and design input.
Green Violin, neighbours in a community with a lot proposed for development, and the vacant lot - includes a public, open-house style event with both information out and input collected from neighbours. The site will also have a community garden and demo models of potential development types to encourage community use of the site and engagement in the development process on an on-going basis (until construction).
Green Violin and other developers - as the engagement process is built out through testing, a tool-kit is created to help other developers become better neighbours.
The storyboards were tested with various audiences along the way and refined. The refined boards were then presented to the RECOVER Catalyst Group for further feedback, relationship building and guidance for next steps.
What We Learned
Housing is about more than four walls and a roof. It is about community. The physical housing is just the starting point; it takes care of basic human needs like sleep, food prep, safety of self, security of belongings, and toilet and cleaning needs. Other aspects related to housing are critical to fulfilling social needs, and affect how the person in the house goes about their life within their community after that. By providing community spaces where socialization can occur, we can combat social isolation.
Where to From Here
The next step is to move into field testing. Green Violin has a vacant lot in the Parkdale neighbourhood where many of the neighbourhood engagement ideas will be tested.
Green Violin has partnered with the Parkdale Community League for the community garden and has applied for the City’s community garden grant to extend garden boxes onto Green Violin’s lot. Informational signage is being designed for placement on the site, to keep neighbours informed. Three different demonstration units are being built for placement on the lot, representing the different types of developments that Green Violin is proposing in the city.
