Throughout 2024, we will feature partners working on affordable housing solutions. We kickoff our partner spotlight series with UTILE.
Spotlight on UTILE - Unité de travail pour l'implantation de logement étudiant
Canada’s housing affordability crisis is a complex issue. Montreal-based nonprofit UTILE (Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant) is tackling it by focusing on affordable student housing. UTILE’s model pairs the social mission of creating affordable student housing with the agility of a private business.
The UTILE team in 2023.
In 2023, the organization was recognized by The Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s top growing companies — the first non-profit to ever make the list. With buildings either operating or under construction in Montreal, Quebec City and Trois-Rivières, UTILE aims to have 1,500 rooms available for rent by 2025, with the eventual goal of housing 10% of the province’s student population in its affordable properties.
Data shows the need is there. A national survey conducted by UTILE in 2021 found the median rent for students living on and off campus is 25% higher than other renter households. It also revealed that seven out of 10 students spend more than 30% of their total monthly budget on housing.
The survey also documented the knock-on effect caused by a lack of student housing: students are forced to seek properties that could be occupied by non-students, compounding the affordability pressures faced by the general housing market.
Laurent Levesque is the CEO of UTILE.
Seizing an opportunity for change
UTILE was established in the wake of 2012’s historic youth mobilization in Quebec, known as Le Printemps érable, when students mobilized in opposition to a proposed hike in tuition fees.
“There was a spirit of young adults participating in society. The protests created a sense of possibility for a 23 or 24-year-old to start a real estate company,” reflects Laurent Levesque, UTILE’s co-founder and CEO, then an urban planning student at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
“In 2013-14, despite no one discussing any form of housing crisis in Quebec, students were already feeling the strain of finding a decent, affordable place to live in most student neighbourhoods,” shares Levesque of the motivation behind UTILE.
After years of work to identify building locations, secure funding, and establish partnerships, in 2016 UTILE signed an agreement with the Concordia Student Union to construct its first student housing building.
UTILE’s properties are off campus, and are not dorms, but tenants still experience the benefits of a student community. “The objective is to create spaces and opportunities for residents to meet their neighbours and to be empowered in their living situation,” explains Levesque.
UTILE’s first building, Woodnote, opened in Montreal’s Le Plateau-Mont-Royal borough in 2020. With its proof of concept complete, UTILE set its sights on expanding its approach.
Affordable student housing blended finance strategy
UTILE received $300,000 in funding contributions to scale its operations from 2020 to 2022 to refine its approach to meet rising demand. Additional flexibility over the next two years allowed them to increase the number of new projects in Quebec. This partnership built on McConnell’s 2018 investment of $2 million in a 20-year Program-related investment (PRI) for student housing in the Fiducie’s Fonds d’investissement pour logement étudiant (FILE). Through FILE, UTILE received funds to build 90 units of affordable student housing for the Woodnote building and 123 units at Rose des vents.
When it opened in 2020, Woodnote was a milestone in nearly 10 years of work to reimagine the future of student housing. Located across from the iconic La Fontaine Park in Montreal, Woodnote has 144 rooms ranging from studios to four-bedroom apartments.
Eyeing national impact
Levesque is adamant that UTILE’s model can be scaled not only to other parts of Quebec, but across Canada. While this goal of local adaptation is nascent, the organization is fielding increasing calls from educational institutions and student associations interested in nonprofit student housing. For these groups, UTILE offers technical assistance and other advice to support the replication of its model.
Levesque says UTILE used McConnell funding to grow the organization and to scale to other communities in Quebec. “Those resources allowed us to expand our projects to Quebec City and Trois-Rivières. This was the first step to becoming a provincial organization, which was really important to scale the scope of our mission.”
By building and operating student housing that will be affordable in perpetuity, UTILE is expanding the nonprofit housing stock that will help Canada have a more resilient housing market for future generations.
“We see our impact not only at the individual level of every tenant that we help, but we also want to have impact at the systemic level,” concludes Levesque. “For that we need to be housing a significant proportion of students — tens of thousands of people. That’s why we’re not satisfied building 100 units every year, that’s just a drop in the bucket.”
Rose des vents, UTILE’s second student housing project, opened in Montreal’s Technopôle Angus eco-district in 2022. It was awarded an honourable mention at the World Design Awards 2020.
