Posted On: December 20, 2025, Posted By: Joseph Quigley, NewmarketToday, Original Article.
York Region is providing more than $30.2 million in funding across five non-profit housing providers to help them build more than 288 affordable units.
The funding, provided through the region’s Community Housing Supply Grant program, aims to help non-profit providers launch new housing developments. The 2025 grant recipients include Trinity Coptic Foundation (Newmarket), Markham Inter-Church Committee for Affordable Housing, Sandgate Women’s Shelter of York Region, Crescent Village Seniors Housing Corporation, and the Islamic Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of Toronto. Each is developing a different project in York Region.
Newmarket Mayor and Housing York chair John Taylor said the challenge is great with homelessness still rising, but the progress that this funding represents is exciting. He said that while Housing York can do good work, there is a need for outside partners to build affordable housing.
“We can’t do this without you,” Taylor said to those non-profit partners. “2026 is going to be an exciting year and I really feel the momentum.”
The grant was first piloted in 2023, with $10.2 million being granted, split between Blue Door building 14 stack townhomes in Newmarket and Richmond Hill Ecumenical Homes Corporation building 90 new housing units. The grant expanded in 2025 with more dedicated funding and will now be a regular grant annually.
Regional staff said that this year’s five grant recipients were informed they would receive the funding in November.
In total, the five organizations will be building 536 units, with 288 guaranteed as affordable through the funding.
Trinity Coptic Foundation board member Nabil Gouda said the organization has had significant support from the municipality to deal with development challenges.
“The challenge we had was the funding and this grant will help us overcome this challenge,” he said.
The organization’s proposal that came before council in 2023 was for more than 200 units, with 60 being affordable, through a development planned at 17175 Yonge St. That project is working through a site planning process.
“The basis of what we do revolves around helping those in need,” Father James Daif with the foundation said. “It’s very important we take our faith outside of just our buildings and into the community, so that’s why we’re very passionate about this project.”
York Region chair and CEO Eric Jolliffe said more support is also needed from upper levels of government.
But, he said, “What gives me confidence is the strength of our partnerships and the shared commitment from all sectors to make meaningful progress. Today, we are bringing more housing. We’re building more opportunity, choice and a stronger future for our residents.”
Blue Door chief operating officer Emmy Kelly said the funding they previously received from the grant helped them make significant improvements to the housing on their property on Gorham Street.
“When we do not create community housing, we are forcing decisions like encampments and other precarious living in our community,” she said. “People share a clear belief that homelessness should be rare, brief and not recurring. And getting there requires more than short-term fixes.”