1. Rooftops Canada
Abri international
Celebrating 25 Years!
Building homes and
communities since 1984

2. Rooftops Canada
Abri international
…the international development program
of cooperative and social housing groups
in Canada since 1984

3. Our Canadian partners house
over 650,000 households…
• The Co-operative • The New Brunswick
Housing Federation Non-Profit Housing
of Canada Association
• The Canadian • la Confédération
Housing and québécoise des
Renewal coopératives
Association d’habitation
• The Ontario Non- • The British
Profit Housing Columbia Non-Profit
Association Housing Association

4. The Challenge
1.2 Billion people – 1/3 of the global urban
population - live in slums. this includes 70% of
urban Africans - 225 million people. UN MDGs
aim to improve the lives of only 100 million.

5. Our response
Rooftops Canada partners with housing groups,
housing co-ops and credit unions, NGOs, trade
unions, governments, international agencies and
the private sector to improve housing conditions
and build sustainable communities.

6. Since 1984…
• Mobilized over $30 million for projects and
programs with overseas partners.
• Helped build local capacity - over 370 technical
advisors in 36 countries.
• Supported over 280 visitors to Canada from 21
countries.
1992: James McGregor

7. Since 1984…
• Pioneering housing-linked responses to HIV and
AIDS with African partners
• Leading housing microfinance work in sub-
Saharan Africa
• Post-disaster housing programs in Rwanda,
Turkey, the Americas and Indonesia

8. Rooftops Canada in Tanzania
• 1995: Provided support for ongoing land rights campaign, and
early work to design and implement a housing co-op program
• 2003: Connected WAT with the Norwegian Federation of
Housing Cooperative Associations leading to collaboration in a
basket-funding program
• 2008: Helped with major four year pilot housing microfinance
program - funded by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust
(FSDT) in Tanzania of which CIDA is a very significant funder.

9. Tanzania: Housing Situation
Population: 34.44 million
Area : 883,600 sq.km.
Population living in unplanned settlements: 40 - 75 percent
• Rapid urbanization
• Lack of basic services: sanitation & drainage systems,
water
• Inadequacy of shelter delivery system/land acquisition
• Overcrowding, HIV/AIDS
• Shortage of surveyed plots

10. WAT-Human Settlements Trus t
• Informal settlements
• Supports housing cooperatives
• Housing finance to low & middle income women
• Advocacy and lobbying

11. Informal Human Settlements
• Development of squatter or unplanned
settlements
• Demand (1998) for units of conventional
housing 1,500,000 units
• Increased vulnerability to HIV and AIDS
• Lack of social services
• Un-planned construction

12. Turning loans to homes …
“Using a Business
Model to Raise
Housing
Circumstances”

13. Home of Charles Solomon and Family
Makabora Housing
Plot in Makabora
Coop Group
and
house built with
incremental
housing
micro finance.
1st loan, 2004 to buy plot:
$802 US
2nd loan 2008 for building
25sq.m: $2,300 US
3rd loan 2009 for extension of
home: $920 US

14. Solomon’s addition
Incremental housing
micro finance (HMF)
adds a separate
“kitchen”
and chicken pen

15. Home of Co-op Member
Saving to finance
adding doors and
windows as upgrades

16. Current Home of Member
Home of saver
for new housing

17. Hannanasif
•Settlement not far from
business sector of Dar es
Salaam
•1st Goal: map the
settlement,
•2nd Goal: recognition of
right to property,
•Upgrade homes, build
additions for income
2008 Government of
Tanzania Issues Rights of
Occupancy Certificates
provided (with cost) to
161 house owners

18. Everyday Life in Hannanasif
Hannanasif is
fortunate
to have drainage
Ditches with bridges

19. Tabitha Siwale and Brad Lester
WAT and Rooftops
Canada work on
strategies to
encourage culture
of savings and
joining the Co-op as
well as participation
in HMF

20. Smiling and Proud
One room : with her savings and
HMF Ceiling has been raised – no
longer needs to bend over
inside
Window plexiglass,
She tiled her dirt floor with
pieces of tile

21. Small business- generating income
Mrs. Nyaki
financed adding
shop space to rent
out

22. Rooftops Canada in Kenya
• 1984: First Rooftops Canada partner. NACHU has been a leader
in pioneering HMF in Kenya (with Rooftops Canada support)
• 2004: FECHIMM (Quebec Cooperative) loan through Rooftops
Canada to NACHU
• 2010: Current HMF loan fund : financed 80 percent from
donations ($335, 000) by international agencies and 20 percent
from low cost loans operations

23. Kenya: Housing Situation
• Population: 36 million
• Kibera: world’s second largest slum
• 45% of Nairobi's population of 3.5 million people live in slums
• Lack of basic services: sanitation & drainage systems,
water
• Overcrowding, HIV/AIDS

24. 2008: Post-election Violence
• 30,000 people forced from their homes
• Co-op housing burnt to the ground
• Water & sanitation systems vandalized
• Shelter for HIV and AIDS orphans looted and destroyed

25. NACHU
• NACHU encourages a culture of savings; minimum shs
200 per month (equivalent to $3.40 CDN)
• Provides small loans (against savings) that fit the way
housing is built by the poor – progressively and over
long time periods.

26. Small Business Enterprises
• Improving livelihoods through small business
for income toward housing
• Ability to repay loans and work toward the
next increased incremental loan

27. Violence hits Homes
• Co-op housing destroyed or illegally occupied
• Loss of sources of livelihood, income and
capital
• Cooperative and social fabrics disrupted

28. Video: Posho Corn Mill
• Owner of a maize (corn) mill business describes how his
business and his home were destroyed in the post
election violence except for one grinding machine.
• He has used incremental financing and some help from
government to rebuild his home and business

29. Video

30. Video of Explanation

31. Not a Slum
Co-op member
has used her
co-op
membership
and savings to
finance her
house cement
siding.
She has started a
day care to earn
more money to
save for her next
loan.

32. A Challenge for NACHU
Encouraging
members through
co-op member
support not to
sell upgraded
home for quick
cash and
return to the
slums

33. Day Care Courtyard
Scott’s Suckers are a Hit: Courtyard day
care children with study visitors

34. Board Chair and a Co-op Member
NACHU member explains
her upgrade of house
siding and her plan of the
day care for Higher
earnings and saving for
her next loan.
She cares for about 18
children a day. Today
only 14!

35. A Swahill House
Video
• 1st loan: building with rooms for
extended family and rental
• 2nd: “restaurant”

36. Inside One of the Entries
Through a door of
the Swahili house
One room “restaurant”
Extended family
of the co-op member

37. Naivasha Traders Housing
Co-operative Society Ltd.
• Small scale traders:Used group
Deputy Mayor: from
fund to make permanent
homelessness to leader of
investments in land and housing
Co-op to politics
• Bought land and subdivided
among the members for rental
income or self housing
• 703 members have allocated
plots and 310 have constructed

38. Water Project

39. Out of the Slums
Initial savings buys a plot and material
for 20ft by 10ft home

40. Where Does the Money Come From?
• 2004, FECHIMM (Quebec Cooperative)
loan through Rooftops Canada, to NACHU, HMF
$20,000, interest rate 5%
• NACHU good with the terms of the agreement,
never missing a payment.
• 2008, after the post election violence, the co-
ops in the Nakuru area had been destroyed,
NACHU asked for a break in the payments:
granted for about a year. Now the situation is
back to normal.

41. How Does All This Happen? Cont’d
• The Rooftops Canada Africa Housing Fund is
launching an initial capital target of at least
one million dollars with a projected growth
several times that amount.
• Cooperative Housing Federation Canada has
championed the cause by investing $100,000
to back up the fund.
• Funding sparking interest from local banks to
participate – MOU signed in Kenya

42. NACHU Awards of Excellence
Award from CHRA
on the table
The organization is
proud of awards
Received and its
international partners

43. What can Canadian housing
groups do?
• Support WAT and NACHU HMF and
capacity building and projects through
Rooftops Canada
• Stay informed and help inform others –
organize an education event
• Visit www.rooftops.ca for more ideas

44. Contact Us…
Rooftops Canada/ Abri International
720 Spadina Ave, Suite 313
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T9
CANADA
Tel: 416-366-1445
Fax: 416-366-3876
E-mail: thandi@rooftops.ca
Website: www.rooftops.ca

45. Asante Sana - Thank You