Conversations on Innovative Solutions in Affordable Housing

Adriana Beemans is a social sector leader with nearly 20 years of experience designing and delivering complex programs with measurable impact, and demonstrated success working in community development, non-profit management and philanthropy.

As the Inclusive Local Economies program director at the Metcalf Foundation, Adriana work with and nurture an eco-system of partners to advance labour-market strategies to reduce poverty, innovative approaches for community wealth, and community organizing for structural change.

Yulena Wan is the Director of Finance & Operations at the Hamilton Community Foundation (HCF), a leader in philanthropy that exists to advance our mission and vision in the interest of the public good and in support of our donors’ intentions. We challenge the premise that our investments are only a means to create income to fund granting and operations of the Foundation, and are committed to aligning 100 percent of our investments with our mission and vision through responsible and impact investments.  

A Chartered Professional Accountant, Yulena is the Board Treasurer and Chair of the Audit and Finance Committees for YWCA Canada, a Board Director for Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), a member of the City of Hamilton’s Status of Women Advisory Committee, and was named a 2018 CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow.  

Mike Bulthuis (he/him) has worked at the intersections of policy, research and community mobilization for over 20 years, joining the Ottawa Community Land Trust (OCLT) as its Executive Director in late 2022. OCLT is a social enterprise pursuing innovative ways of preserving housing affordability in the national capital region. We acquire existing rental properties and turn them into non-profit affordable housing, and we secure vacant land to develop various types of affordable housing in the future.  

Mike has worked in policy development with the federal public service on issues including homelessness, social finance, social innovation and infrastructure. Mike has also held leadership positions at Ottawa’s Alliance to End Homelessness and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. He currently Chairs the Board of the Centretown Community Health Centre and is a Director with the provincial Alliance for Healthier Communities, having earlier served with local and national Boards furthering social enterprises, social planning and public justice. 

Sean Campbell is the Executive Director of Union Co-operative, which is working to buy residential and commercial properties in Waterloo Region for permanent affordability through community ownership. He works as the Principal of Scaled Purpose, a management consultancy that provides strategic planning, research, program design, business planning, and evaluation services for non-profits, charities, co-operative, and other social purpose organizations. Sean is an instructor at Wilfrid Laurier University in non-profit management and social entrepreneurship, and the Treasurer for the Fourth Pig Green & Natural Construction Worker Co-operative.  

Sean holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo where he researches impact investing policy and governance for community organizations. Sean was a 2021 Bertram Scholar, a research award provided by the Institute of Corporate Director’s Canadian Foundation for Governance Research. 

Ryan Collins-Swartz (he/him) is dedicated to building inclusive financial systems that engage the transformative power of community. As the Co-Executive Director of Tapestry Community Capital, he supports organizations to raise investment to bring their dream projects to life. Tapestry has helped raised over $100 million in Community Bonds from more than 4,000 community investors for renewable energy, affordable housing, arts & culture, and other social infrastructure. In fall 2020, Tapestry was selected as winners of CMHC’s Housing Supply Challenge to grow community financing in Canada’s affordable housing sector.   

Ryan’s professional journey has focused on the intersections between social enterprise, community development, and real estate. He is a Board Director at Saintlo (formerly Hosteling International Canada) and an advisor to several social purpose real estate initiatives. Ryan holds an HBA from the Ivey Business School & Rotterdam School of Management.   

Jeff Neven is the CEO of Indwell, working alongside his team over the past 21 years to grow the organization to 1,067 units with 760 units under construction/pre-development, and growing assets from $150K to $250M. From just 3 full-time staff to an organization of over 250 employees, Jeff firmly believes in creating a culture of empowerment. Jeff is an established community leader, involved in youth neighbourhood engagement, active transportation, homelessness prevention and his local church. He lives with his wife Maria and four children in central Hamilton and holds a Master of Social Work in Community, Policy, Planning and Organizations from Wilfrid Laurier University.