About Us

Crystal Beach Co-operative Homes Inc. is located at 1 Esme Lane in Crystal Beach, ON. We are a housing co-operative.

What is Co-operative Housing?

Housing co-ops provide at-cost housing for their members.
They are controlled by members who have a vote in decisions.
There is no outside landlord.

Each housing co-operative is a legal association, incorporated as a co-operative. Housing co-ops are guided by international co-operative principles, adapted for housing co-ops.

Cooperative Principles

• Open and Voluntary Membership
• Democratic Member Control
• Members’ Economic Participation
• Autonomy and Independence
• Education, Training, and Information
• Cooperation Among Cooperatives
• Concern for Community

Around the world, the co-operative housing model is flexible and takes many different forms. In Canada, most housing co-ops are rental co-ops, developed during the 1970s and ’80s under government social housing programs – geared towards people with low to moderate incomes. We are now moving into an era where there will be many different types of housing co-ops, including equity.

If you live in a housing co-op, you are:

• a voting member who contributes to the governance of the co-op
• part of a community where neighbours look out for one another
• living in housing that will remain affordable, because it’s run on a non-profit basis and will never be resold
• linked to other forms of co-operative enterprises, active in banking, retail, farming, insurance, daycare, health services and more, and
• a member of a worldwide movement.

Housing co-op members have the right to:

• elect a board of directors
• run for the board
• receive audited financial statements showing how the co-op spent money
• approve by-laws, rules and major policies, and
• live there for as long as you like, if you keep to the by-laws or rules agreed upon by the members.