One City Peterborough held an event called “Opening Doors” on Tuesday evening (May 12) at Knights of Columbus Hall to discuss the non-profit organization’s housing strategy and how it is working to address homelessness in the community, including by developing additional rental units (ARUs).
The event was attended by volunteers, donors, supporters, partners, and other community members, including several mayoralty and councillor candidates in this fall’s municipal election.
One City has been involved in the management and purchasing of residential properties since the organization was established in 2019 following the merger of Warming Room Community Ministries and Peterborough Reintegration Services.
“Non-profits purchasing housing made so much sense,” Tammy Kuehne, acting executive director of One City, told the crowd when speaking about early property acquisition and the role of private donors in securing housing and funding to operate programming.
Working with Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes to develop additional rental units
Over the past six years, One City has been successful in purchasing a property, either a house or a church, every year. The charity currently owns eight residential properties and partners with local landlords to support a total of 51 spaces for transitional living.
It is on these properties that One City has begun the development of ARUs to increase available rental stock. The charity works in collaboration with Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes (PATH), which acts as the lead project management and construction team.
ARUs are defined within the City of Peterborough as a “self-contained residential unit with a private kitchen, bathroom facilities, and sleeping areas within dwellings or within structures ancillary to a dwelling.” This can include basement apartments and so-called in-law suites as well as independent structures.
To date, this program has one fully completed and two nearly completed ARUs built on One City properties — including a backyard “tiny house” and a self-contained basement apartment in the main building — and the organization is already seeing success for the program.
Janice Hoskins, a volunteer coordinator for the recently renovated property, told kawarthaNOW she became involved with One City because “It makes me feel like I am not alone in my concerns.”
“I feel very passionately about people being precariously housed and unhoused,” she said. “I was looking for an organization that would address the problem head on.”
‘Dignity and autonomy are a really important part of housing stabilization’
One City built its first ARU at The Erin Sullivan House on Monaghan Road, named after the late long-term One City and One Roof volunteer who passed away in 2022 at the age of 43 of cystic fibrosis. The ARU has been named “Erin’s Tiny Home” in her honour.
A main focus of ARU development for One City is the opportunity to provide single-occupancy dwellings in addition to their existing congregate living houses.
Elisa Zeus, housing coordinator at One City, told kawarthaNOW the charity needs “a really large continuum of housing,” including options for people who need to live on their own.
Kuehne explained that for individuals transitioning out of homelessness, being able to live alone provides dignity and autonomy as well as the opportunity to really begin making positive change in their lives.
Reading a message from the tenant at Erin’s Tiny Home, Kuehne shared how the ARU allowed this person to host their family, keep regular routines, and focus on their mental health.
“Dignity and autonomy are a really important part of housing stabilization,” said Zeus of the long-term impact of single-occupancy dwellings.
Purchase of Stewart Street home with United Way support will add two new ARUs, including an accessible one
On April 15, One City closed on the purchase of a home on Stewart Street for which they already have the support of the City of Peterborough to develop two ARUs.
This purchase was made possible by funding through the Reaching Home program coordinated by the United Way Peterborough & District.
“They not only kept the piece of property out of the (private rental) market, but it kept those folks in their homes and adds new units,” said Rhonda Gilchrist, senior director of operations and revenue generation at the United Way.
The Reaching Home program, which receives its funding from the Government of Canada, supports projects that align with the goals of the federal government’s national homelessness and housing strategies.
Gilchrist said that, during a comprehensive community needs assessment in fall 2025, the United Way found that the most significant issue in Peterborough was the lack of available units and overall low housing stock.
Michael VanDerHerberg, director of property development at One City, said One City will begin building two new units on the Stewart Street property in June, with one of the units accessible to meet the complex needs of the unhoused community.
“ARUs allow us to build accessibility into the design and let residents age at home with us,” Zeus added.
Looking ahead: developing more ARUs and purpose-built supportive housing
Looking ahead, One City is working to acquire new properties across Peterborough and develop additional ARUs.
“The housing acquisitions and builds we have done so far have demonstrated to us so clearly that purchasing and protecting housing so that it remains affordable, supportive, and safe is the right way forward,” Kuehne told kawarthaNOW.
One City is currently fundraising to purchase a residential property at 705 Sherbrooke Street owned by the City of Peterborough.
On April 13, Peterborough city council unanimously voted to sell the property to One City for $410,000 and provide the charity with a vendor take-back mortgage of $200,000, which would be fully forgivable at the end of its 20-year term.
VanDerHerberg told event attendees that One City still needs to raise a further $155,000 from the community to close on the property this summer.
“We want to capture a moment in time where momentum is building,” he said. “We’re leaning into this and we hope you lean into it with us.”
One City is also seeking funding to purchase a house on Dublin Street, which has space to develop four ARUs. This would be the organization’s largest development to add new units to the Peterborough rental market.
On their website, One City indicates that its housing programs “remove housing from the private market” and treat housing as a right and not a commodity.
In addition to purchasing existing residential properties, One City will also be seeking larger lots to build multi-unit developments.
With May 12 marking the last day of One City’s outreach programs for unsheltered people due to a lack of funding, the charity spoke to refocusing their work on providing transitional housing in addition to offering overnight shelter and drop-in services at Trinity Community Centre, located in the former Trinity United Church on Reid Street.
That’s where One City operates a daytime drop-in program and an overnight shelter program, with both programs funded through a three-year service agreement with the City of Peterborough.
VanDerHerberg said that there are also early plans to renovate Trinity to include three floors of purpose-built supportive housing, offering a total 15 to 20 units, noting this is a long-term goal over the next five to 10 years.
“Our goal is to strengthen our infrastructure, skills, and capacity for when those opportunities come,” Kuehne added.
For more information about One City Peterborough and to donate, visit www.onecityptbo.ca.
