Co-locating Housing with Community Facilities

Co-location involves combining housing with community facilities as a way of leveraging available land and resources to increase housing options.

The City prepared a framework to help interested parties better understand the opportunities and challenges of co-locating housing with community facilities as a means of increasing housing options in the City of Whitehorse.

With support from Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC), the City engaged CitySpaces Consulting in early 2026 to conduct a high-level review of local co-location opportunities, undertake focused research, and interview and learn from housing and development professionals based in Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Edmonton, Calgary, and communities in British Columbia, .

The framework includes information intended to assist public, private, First Nation, and not-for-profit developers considering co-location initiatives including:

  • key considerations
  • opportunities and risks related to establishing beneficial partnerships
  • evaluating appropriate locations
  • coordinating sustained funding
  • establishing legal agreements
  • managing design and construction
  • ensuring operational success

A series of project-specific case studies, provided in the Case Studies, synthesizes learnings gathered through engagement and research conducted on co-location projects in Northern and Western Canada. The case studies are also referenced throughout the framework.

Click below to watch a video summarizing the report or read the framework directly.

Click to download the Housing Co-location Framework prepared by CitySpaces Consulting Ltd.

If you have additional questions, please contact Planning and Sustainability Services at [email protected]