2011 chra award recipients
Robert Hale Jr. Memorial Award: Innovative Residential (Tyler Mathies, Alex Millar)
Graham Emslie Award: Don McBain
International Award: Robert Cohen
Danielle Juteau
Directrice Générale,
Corporation d’habitation Jeanne-Mance
Danielle Juteau has been working in social and affordable housing for over 30 years. As Housing Director for the société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal, Danielle was involved in the rehabilitation of thousands of affordable housing units. In 1985, she received an award from the Québec Minister of Housing for her work in social and community development and it was this award – which she received at the age of 26 – that propelled her into a lifelong career committed to improving the housing situations of Canadians.
Currently, Danielle serves as directrice générale to Corporation d’habitation Jeanne-Mance in downtown Montréal, which manages approximately 800 social housing units. built during the late 1950s, today Habitations Jeanne-Mance is the oldest and largest real estate complex of its kind in Québec; housing nearly 1700 residents from 70 different countries.
Over the past ten years, Danielle and her dedicated team have been working to revitalize Habitations Jeanne-Mance with the support of government, institutional and community partners. Danielle’s primary goal for this revitalization project has been to enhance the living environment by integrating it both physically and socially within the surrounding community.
In order to achieve this goal, work has been split between major renovations to the physical structures and community development projects; including renewal of street furniture, increasing green areas and developing urban art, murals and mosaics.
for her outstanding contribution to enhancing the living situations of Canadian citizens, CMHC is very pleased to honour Danielle Juteau with this award.
Robert Hale Jr. Memorial Award
Innovative Residential, Saskatoon, SK
Accepted by Co-Founders, Tyler Mathies and Alex Miller
Innovative Residential Inc. has made an outstanding contribution to the improvement of existing housing through their efforts to save and refurbish 82 war-time housing units in McNab Park in Saskatoon. these units have undergone complete interior and exterior renovations to bring them up to code and modern standards.
McNab Park consisted of 162 dwellings constructed by the Department of Defense in 1946, and located adjacent to the airport in Saskatoon. Innovative Residential relocated all of the units from their original location in McNab Park to Camponi Place in Saskatoon’s fairhaven neighbourhood, a distance of over eight kilometres.
Innovative Residential Inc. also wanted to create a new housing program to help households with modest incomes acquire a new home at Camponi Place. they were the driving force behind the idea to create the very successful ‘Mortgage flexibility Support Program’. this new program brought together three levels of government to create a unique program, which provides incentives to builders and homebuyers with modest incomes in Saskatoon.
In a time of rapid growth and change in Saskatoon, without the work of Innovative Residential, the McNab Park housing units would have simply been lost, and over 80 households would not have had a unique opportunity to own their own home in Camponi Place.
the housing project remains an outstanding success. All of the Camponi Place dwellings were purchased and occupied under the new Mortgage flexibility Support Program within 12 months of completion.
Don is currently the Executive Director of the Ontario Aboriginal Housing services. He carries with him a lifetime of experience from a career spent serving Aboriginal organizations. Don has worked tirelessly for decades to obtain Aboriginal control over Aboriginal resources.
In 1992, Don represented the Ontario Métis and Aboriginal Association (OMAA), where he was the Manager of the Property Management Division, at province-wide consultations. following these consultations, Don, along with a consultant, was tasked with the consolidation of
the consultations, the initial design and structure of a new corporation and its mandate to respond to the identified needs, which came out of the consultation process.
the new corporation, the Ontario Aboriginal Housing services (OAHS) was struck on September 1, 1994, with Don as the founding General Manager. through OAHS, Don has helped to lead successful initiatives for Aboriginal housing across the province.
Don has been called upon by Housing Ministries from other Provinces and Aboriginal Housing Providers to share his expertise and knowledge in bringing about real and sustainable changes to the control and administration of Aboriginal Housing.
Robert Cohen
Consultant on housing issues regarding local and international development
Robert Cohen has been working to help those in need of supports and affordable housing since the early 70s, when he worked as a lawyer for the first legal aid office in Quebec. Robert’s contributions to affordable housing in Canada include five years on the CHRA board of directors, including two as President from 2000-2002.
through most of the 1980s Robert held the position of Vice- president and director-general of the Société d’Amélioration Milton Parc Inc., a community development corporation responsible for a cooperative housing project in the Milton Parc neighbourhood of Montreal. Under Robert’s direction, this project brought together three levels of government, along with input from tenants and social-community organizations to revitalize a neighbourhood in a new way for Montréal; without demolishing buildings or displacing tenants.
from the late 80s to the mid-90s, Robert was the Executive Director, société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), a para-municipal corporation which managed over 5,700 housing units. During his time at SHDM, Robert oversaw the acquisition and renovation of 3,500 deteriorated housing units.
More recently, Robert has taken the experience he gained in Canada bringing groups together to create viable housing projects, and employed it in South Africa over the past eight years. there, through the auspices of Rooftops Canada, and in his capacity as a technical advisor on housing, he has worked with the national government, the province of Gauteng, and Johannesburg social Housing Company (JOSHCO), a municipal entity owned by the City of Johannesburg.
Click here to read the inspirational acceptance speech Robert made to delegates at Congress.