Is affordable housing a right? Our next Yonge Talks event asks that question of our panel of experts—and attendees.
 
Peter MacLeod, principal of Mass LBP and moderator of our December Feet and Wheels panel, is back. His guests include Neil Hetherington, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Toronto, Noorez Lalani, vice president of MOD Developments Inc, and Joining us live via Skype from the UK is David Cowans of Places for People.
 
This, our sixth Yonge Talks, has a twist. Following the June 21 event, Yonge Street Media will host a second talkback session on Thursday, July 19, that will dig deeper into key points from the first session in order to develop solutions that we as a community can push forward. Attendees will have the opportunity to sign up for the talkback session at the June 21 event. The idea is to look beyond what Toronto is doing right now to find ways to move forward and generate solutions.
 
OUR PANELISTS

David Cowans is group chief executive of Places for People, one of the largest housing associations in the UK. Cowans has led the transformation of Places for People from a traditional housing association—a common UK model for providing affordable housing—into a diverse business which provides a range of products and services to build and manage communities that can prosper and be sustainable in the long term. Cowans is a fellow of the Institute of Housing, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a chartered director of the Institute of Directors and has an MBA from Birmingham University.  He is also an academician of The Academy of Urbanism and a trustee of the Chartered Institute of Housing.  Cowans is a regular speaker and writer on housing and regeneration issues.
 
Neil Hetherington began his career in project management at Tridel Construction, Canada's largest condominium developer. In September 2000, he made a radical career change by joining Habitat for Humanity Toronto; at the time as the youngest CEO of a Habitat affiliate in the world. Since that time Habitat for Humanity Toronto has accelerated its building program from an average of one home every two years to 84 under construction in 2009. The Habitat Toronto ReStore operations have grown from $250,000 in 2000 to over $2.7 million in 2010. Today, Neil can be seen regularly building with Habitat for humanity locally and internationally.
 
Noorez Lalani is vice president of acquisitions and development for Mod Developments Inc. A lawyer by profession and MBA graduate of the Real Estate Finance and Development specialization at the Schulich School of Business, he previously practiced in the corporate finance and commercial real estate groups at a prominent Canadian law firm, and most recently was with TD Bank Financial Group, where he was an account manager in the Real Estate Lending Group.
 
Peter MacLeod is the co-founder and principal of MASS LBP, an innovative firm based in Toronto which works with visionary governments and corporations to deepen and improve public consultation and engagement. Since 2007, MASS has led some of Canada's most original and ambitious efforts to engage citizens in tackling tough policy options while pioneering the use of Civic Lotteries and Citizen Reference Panels on behalf of a wide array of clients. Over the past 10 years, he has worked with leading organizations in North America and Europe, including Fast Company magazine, Vancouver's Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Britain's Demos think tank and the Kaospilots, a Danish school for business design and social innovation. A fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University, he writes and speaks frequently about the citizen's experience of the state, the importance of public imagination and the future of responsible government.
 
The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation.
 
It's free and everyone is welcome. Please click here to register.
 
The details
Thursday, June 21
Doors at 6:10pm; program starts at 6:40pm
ING Café, 221 Yonge Street (please use Shuter Street doors to enter)
 
For those who would like to return for the talkback session, part two takes place Thursday, July 19, same time, same place.
 
We'll be using the hashtag #yongetalks for this series.