SoHo: From Vision to Village
SoHo: From Vision to Village
This story was first published in London Community Foundation’s 2024 Impact Report, in May 2025.
A rendering of Village SoHo from Nicholson Sheffield Architects Inc.
London is experiencing a housing crisis, with affordable and supportive housing particularly hard to find – a fact that has been clear for some time, well before the pandemic.
When data from London Community Foundation’s Vital Signs report in 2015 pointed to an emerging shortage of affordable housing, our Board and committee members, staff, and partners started talking about ways to address the issue. We considered what we could accomplish by collaborating with a diverse range of partners, each bringing their unique strengths to the solution.
The outcome? Vision SoHo Alliance -- an affordable housing project that brings together multiple parties to create much-needed housing in a historically vital neighbourhood of London. It is a first-of-its-kind-in-Canada project, with six non-profit developers working together on one site to create a mixed-income development offering nearly 700 marketrate, affordable, and supportive housing apartments. Chelsea Green Home Society, Homes Unlimited, Indwell, London Affordable Housing Foundation, Residenza Affordable Housing, and Zerin Development Corporation are the non-profit developers that came together.
Beyond the numbers, the development embodies the spirit and preserves the history of the Old Victoria Hospital site, with the two remaining heritage buildings maintained and refurbished by Indwell for supportive housing. Now, only six years on from the conception of the idea, the lands of the Old Victoria Hospital look very different, showcasing six buildings at various stages of completion. Having made such incredible progress on the development, the Vision SoHo project has now been appropriately renamed Village SoHo.
London Community Foundation has been involved in affordable and supportive housing projects since the inception of our Social Impact Fund in 2012. The Fund unlocks some of the Foundation’s assets to create positive community change by providing loans to support social enterprises and affordable housing projects.
To get Village SoHo started as quickly as possible, London Community Foundation provided loans for the start-up costs and the land purchase. The Foundation and the non-profit developers held a celebratory community groundbreaking event in October 2022.
“The Foundation was able to provide financing for Village SoHo in a number of innovative and creative ways to support the partners in purchasing the land, covering initial development costs, and setting up a unique structure to support their collaboration.”
- Diane Silva, President and CEO, London Community Foundation.
Unfortunately, these funds are rarely available to developers upfront at the start of a project, so bridge financing – which has become a specialty of the Foundation’s Social Impact Fund – is often required to get these projects underway. The case was no different for the six nonprofit developers of Village SoHo.
“When we’re developing projects, we have to be in a position of coming up with 5% upfront of the cost of the total project to cover things like the architect’s fees, the planner’s fees, the purchase of the land. All of this takes place before Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) does the mortgage on the project, so the bridge funding keeps us in a position where we could actually afford to proceed with these projects,” says Ron Rowbottom, Vice-President of Zerin Development Corporation, one of the Village SoHo partners.
“Without the Social Impact Loan and the London Community Foundation, non-profits are not in a position of having the kind of funds that are necessary in order to start a project.”
- Ron Rowbottom, Vice-President, Zerin Development Corporation
In total, London Community Foundation provided the partners with $20.3 million in bridge loans to get the project running at full speed. The Foundation’s Board of Directors approved a temporary increase for the Social Impact Fund during this time to ensure investments could still be made in other projects for community good. The Foundation also approached a range of other potential partners to contribute funds for the loans. Hamilton Community Foundation, St James Westminster Church Foundation, and the Verge Breakthrough Fund all joined us and provided $1.275 million in additional funding.
Representatives of various partners in Village SoHo. Photo: Laurence Simner
Diversifying the source of loans and increasing the cap on the Social Impact Fund allowed the Fund to continue operating as usual. While we supported Village SoHo, loans were also approved for many other projects, including for the creation and protection of affordable and supportive housing developments by L’Arche Stratford, the Alice Saddy Foundation, and the Cross Cultural Learner Centre.
As of Spring 2025, $17 million of the $20.3 million had been repaid by the Village SoHo partners, with the final $3.3 million expected to be returned by Fall 2026.
“The beauty and the multiplying impact of the Social Impact Fund is that highvalue projects such as Village SoHo get supported through the Fund to work through the early stages of their project. Once the project meets the requirements for longterm funding by others like CMHC, the Fund is repaid, and we are able to support new programs. The Social Impact Fund creates lasting impact for our community over and over again,” says Shane Butcher, Chair of London Community Foundation’s Social Finance Committee.
Village SoHo is a testament to the sustainable community impact that can be achieved through collaboration. Building nearly 700 rental apartments could take one organization working alone up to 15 years to complete. It’s expected that the first building ready for occupancy will be Zerin’s, open as soon as the Fall 2025 followed closely by Homes Unlimited. For information on occupancy at Village SoHo, visit www.villagesoho.ca. To learn more about the development of Village SoHo, visit this YouTube playlist.
SoHo Timeline
April 2022 – The Vision SoHo project officially launched.
September 2022 – The non-profit developers took ownership of the land.
October 2023 – The first Social Impact loans provided to Zerin.
November 2023 – Construction began, starting with the underground parking for the Zerin building.
January 2025 – $17.3 million in loans repaid to London Community Foundation.
Fall 2025 – Zerin’s building ready for tenants.
Winter 2025 – Homes Unlimited (London) Inc.’s building ready for tenants.
Early 2026 – Chelsea Green Home Society’s building ready for tenants.
Summer 2026 – London Affordable Housing Foundation’s building ready for tenants.
Summer 2026 – Indwell’s War Memorial Children's Hospital ready for tenants.
Winter 2027 – Indwell’s Health Services Building ready for tenants.
Summer 2028 – Residenza Affordable Housing’s building ready for tenants.