Dovercourt Housing Cooperative was founded in 1984 and is dedicated to providing safe, quality, and affordable housing for families of all shapes and sizes and to building a vibrant community of neighbours. Dovercourt Housing Cooperative operates under Federal Jurisdiction and is managed by democratic decision making by members. To live in our Cooperative, one must first go through a simple but thorough application and interview process before being offered a unit.
All members must contribute a minimum of 4 hours of volunteer labour towards the smooth operation of the Cooperative. This usually means volunteering on one of our many committees or the Board of Directors. Twice a year, the whole Co-op gathers on a weekend morning to perform spring and fall yard work. Members are also expected to attend General and Special meetings in order to be fully informed about pending decisions and to vote on motions vital to the direction of the Cooperative.
This member participation allows us to operate as a non-profit cooperative and to keep our costs low, thus ensuring continued affordable housing charges.
As a non-profit cooperative we elect a Board of Directors from the membership. This Board conducts the business of operating the Cooperative. The Board forms various committees to carry out specific functions and these committees report directly to the Board. The committees are as follows:
- Membership - responsible for giving Information Sessions to prospective members, interviews and selects successful applicants and fills vacancies as needed.
- Maintenance - maintains units in optimal condition, makes repairs that fall under Cooperative responsibility as needed, plans for long term repair projects, liaises with tradespeople who perform repair work.
- Finance - maintains financial health of the Cooperative.
- Subsidy - assess households eligibility for subsidy and make calculations to determine subsidized housing charge. Please note that we have no subsidized spaces available.
- Social - organize social events and order food and refreshments for meetings.
- Parking - organize on-site parking allotment and enforce parking by-laws.