The United Nations declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives highlights how member-owned enterprises promote inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities. To mark the occasion, CHF BC launched the BC Co-operative Housing History Project. This project is recording stories of housing co-operative founders, members, and leaders across the province.

This instalment of CHF BC’s Living the Co‑operative Way series explores how shared responsibility and democratic decision‑making inherent in the co-operative model empower members. Unlike traditional housing models, co-operatives encourage the active engagement of their members. More importantly, they reward it with responsive governance and genuine influence over the long-term direction of their home and community.

Shared Decision‑Making and Member Empowerment

Throughout all our interviews, one message rose above the details: democratic member control is foundational to keep housing co-ops affordable, accountable, and thriving. This post combines their insights into four themes—grassroots democracy, shared accountability, skill development, and long-term stability—to show how a simple ballot in a common room can transform both bricks-and-mortar and human lives.’

Democracy at Your Doorstep

In traditional rentals, decisions come from the top. Investors hire managers who create rules, and tenants either adapt or move out.

Alexandra Wilson, a pioneer of the Canadian co‑op movement, reminds us of how housing co‑ops flip this script. In her earliest organizing days at Toronto’s Bain Apartments Co-operative, Wilson watched residents refuse a 99-year lease because it left ultimate control with the city.

“We held three general meetings before it passed,” she recalls, “but members chose ownership—even if it meant higher carrying costs—because it also meant self‑determination.” This insistence on autonomy and independence distinguishes co-ops not just from private landlords but from many nonprofit models, where residents are still tenants rather than members.

“What really makes a co‑operative stand out is member control. In a housing co‑op, it’s one member, one vote — and that simple rule changes everything.”

– Alexandra Wilson

Accountability & Co-Ownership

Democracy is only meaningful when paired with responsibility.

Quebec Manor Housing Co-operative in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood exemplifies the strength of shared decision-making and member empowerment. In 1979, a sudden 65% rent increase and a tight rental market prompted tenants to organize against the hike.

Co-op founding members David Lach and Suzanne Zimmering shared how neighbours united to seek funding for buying the building and carrying out renovations. While they were ultimately successful, their learning curve was steep. The tenants-turned-members had to learn how to vet and select contractors, develop budgets, and resolve disputes.

Over four decades later, their hard work and determination continue to pay off. Quebec Manor still provides affordable and stable housing and a supportive community to its members. This story is echoed across the province, with co-op members influencing everything from maintenance schedules to municipal policy debates.

“Housing co‑operatives give people a platform to influence not only their building but policy at every level.” – 

– Tiffany Duzita, former executive director of the
Community Land Trust

Skills That Travel Beyond the Co‑op

Running a housing co-operative teaches real-world skills—such as financial literacy, meeting facilitation, and conflict resolution—that formal education often overlooks.

Stuart Thomas entered the co-operative housing movement as a skeptical graduate student whose rental apartment was facing foreclosure. A bit of library research uncovered a new government co-op program that would support the purchase of their building. He gathered his neighbours together to explore this possibility further.

Within months, he was drafting bylaws and budgets for Trafalgar Housing Co-operative in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood.  This experience inspired him to co-found Terra Social Purpose Real Estate, a community housing development and management company that has guided many co-ops and non-profit rentals from concept to move-in.

 

Newer members reflect this experience. Melanie M. and Sarah B. of Burnaby’s Garden Square Housing Co-operative credit co-op committee work on building their skills and boosting their confidence, attributes they now use in other aspects of their lives.

“Working alongside people with diverse skills and perspectives reminds me to share what I know and do more broadly.”

– Sarah B.

Trust, Stability & Mixed‑Income Success

Long-term affordability is what initially attracts many members to a housing co-operative; but the trust built through collective governance may be the greater reward.

Developer and philanthropist Michael Audain describes co‑ops as “a form of homeownership—without the speculation.” When members know their neighbours will still be there next year, they invest in social capital-building activities such as babysitting swaps, garden clubs, and carpools.

Co-op developer and advocate Elain Duvall emphasizes that mixed-income communities build, rather than weaken, trust. Her work developing co-ops shows that higher-income households are willing to subsidize their lower-income neighbours when members democratically decide, instead of having decisions imposed by an outside landlord.

“People learn to live, work and play together across incomes and cultures—the very definition of an inclusive community.”

–  Elain Duvall

A clear example was shared by Graham McGarva, a founding member of Alder Bay Housing Co-operative in Vancouver’s False Creek South. After paying off its mortgage in 2010, rather than lowering housing charges, members voted to keep them steady and to use the surplus to set up an internal subsidy fund that serves as a safety net for current and future generations.

“This co-op is not here to provide inexpensive housing and keep costs down in all circumstances; it is to nurture the community.”

–  Graham McGarva

Voice, Vote, Value: Building a Better World

Whether the setting is a 1970s townhouse, a converted historic building, or a brand-new high-rise built by the Community Land Trust, the lesson stays the same. When co-op members actively take part in setting policies and making decisions, they create homes that outlast market cycles and political winds.

This achievement embodies IYC 2025’s challenge to build a better world by prioritizing people over profit and neighbours over shareholders. BC’s housing co-ops show that democracy is not just a political ideal—it is a practical tool for achieving affordability, inclusion, and resilience.

Your Turn

How has shared decision‑making shaped your co‑op or empowered you in other parts of your life? Send your story to yartibise@chf.bc.ca and help inspire the next generation of co‑operative leaders.