Kyla Tanner

Background

About Kyla Tanner

I love all things related to affordable housing. I will talk avidly and passionately about this topic to anyone within earshot. It's why I've geared my career towards the sector. It took me some time to find this passion though. I have a Master in Environmental Studies degree from York University, where I was interested in climate change policy. This lead me to work at Environment and Climate Change Canada (then Environment Canada) in 2014 and the Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development at the Office of the Auditor General afterwards from 2015-2018. While working for the federal government, I became interested in how municipalities were responding to climate change, particularly through adaptation, and how their actions have a direct impact on the lives of people residing in the city. This inspired me to pursue a second master’s degree, this time in Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s University. During my studies, I enrolled in Affordable Housing and Health and Social Planning courses. I actively sought opportunities to further my understanding through class assignments and group projects, such as my masters report on supportive housing in Ontario and British Columbia, found here. I also took advantage of opportunities to travel and see affordable housing models in other countries, including Vienna in 2019 and the Netherlands in 2020. Once I became impassioned by the need for more affordable housing in our societies, I sought out employment in the sector. I joined Cahdco, a non-profit real estate developer based in Ottawa in 2019 while completing my urban planning masters and joined them as a full-time team member in 2020 upon graduation. For two years I was a Development Project Manager with Cahdco and Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC). I was responsible for leading projects that explore the feasibility of affordable housing development, go through design and development with other consulting teams such as architecture firms and construction managers, and represent the housing provider throughout the construction phase of the project. Today, I am the Development Project Manager at Women's Shelters Canada (WSC). We are starting a brand new Second Stage Transitional Housing Project where we offer development services to women's shelters creating new second stage housing across the country.