More than 33,000 Ottawa residents call Ottawa Community Housing (OCH) home.
A home is more than a roof over your head; it’s where life happens, memories are created, and where futures begin.
Unlike traditional landlords, OCH takes a holistic approach by pairing affordable housing with tenant supports, partnering with local organizations to provide community services, and offering opportunities for tenants to engage and help shape their communities.
Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH, describes housing as “your foundation for stability.” As the leader of Ottawa’s largest provider of community and social housing, he oversees a $4-billion portfolio of nearly 16,000 homes serving residents across the city.
Some would call it a job, but when you meet Giguère you quickly realize that leading OCH is a passion that extends far beyond building and managing community housing; for him, it’s about supporting OCH tenants and helping remove barriers to create opportunities.
Giguère’s own upbringing in a modest Quebec City household shaped this perspective. “There wasn’t much extra, but there was family and community,” he recalls. “I learned early on the value of helping others and building community”. At university, he earned a master’s degree in public administration from l’École Nationale d’Administration Pénitentiaire (ENAP) and worked as an executive in the private sector as well as broadcasting before taking on his current role in 2014.
He credits the combination of his early life, education, work ethic, and professional experience with providing the skills needed to lead OCH, saying, “We operate as a small, medium-sized business, but with a large-scale mandate of owning and managing $4 billion in assets.” His broad scope of abilities has helped make OCH an award-winning organization, most recently recognized by the Ottawa Board of Trade as Best Non-Profit at the Best Ottawa Business Awards. But it’s the importance he places on small gestures that shapes his leadership approach at OCH.
OCH serves a diverse community—seniors, students, immigrants, and low-income families —and Giguère exudes pride as he talks about the programs the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation (OCHF) runs with community partners to support them. These include Pack-a-Sack, which provides children with backpacks filled with school supplies, helping them start the year prepared; the Inspired by Learning Bursary for postsecondary students, which eases financial pressure and allows them to focus on their studies; and recLINK, which connects kids to recreational activities many families couldn’t otherwise access.
The Hop on Bikes program resonates particularly deeply with Giguère. In partnership with ReCycles Ottawa, the OCH-F provides OCH residents with refurbished bikes, along with new helmets and locks. Giguère becomes animated as he recalls his own first bicycle, donated when he was a young boy. “When you’re 7, 8, even 10 years old, a bicycle is freedom—the freedom to go to the store, to meet friends. You don’t realize it until you don’t have one.” For OCH tenants, it’s also a way to get to work, attend school, visit friends, and take part in community life. In 2025, the program set a goal to give a bike to a resident every day of the year—a milestone Giguère calls “just amazing,” not for the number, but for the independence and opportunities it creates.
“There are a lot of connections between the little Stéphane who grew up in a lower-income community and the Stéphane who now leads the fourth-largest provider of affordable housing for low-income families in Canada,” he explains. “Affordable housing is more than building codes and bottom lines, it’s about the individuals who occupy those spaces.”
This is precisely why OCH works with about 170 community partners that provide services ranging from annual tax preparation to mental health support. By hosting these programs within its buildings, OCH takes a practical, partnership-driven approach that has enabled it to grow while expanding support for residents.
Above: Staff from Ottawa Community Housing volunteer their time at Foster Farm.
“Providing homes is only part of what we do. We’re here to build communities, because strong communities strengthen the entire city — not just the people who live in them,” Giguère explains. He champions a holistic approach that provides stability for residents while supporting them as they navigate their own paths. “Everyone is at a different stage in life,” he says. “They need different resources and supports.” By combining stable housing with community-based services, residents gain the foundation and guidance to pursue goals that truly matter to them.
Under Giguère’s leadership, OCH is advancing projects that respond directly to Ottawa’s growing need for affordable housing. The organization is currently constructing the second phase of Mosaïq Ottawa, a 273-home, multi-building development located across from the Phase One site. This new phase incorporates innovative sustainability features that are environmentally friendly and help tenants save on utility costs.
The first phase, now complete and occupied, includes a contemporary high-rise at 811 Gladstone with 108 apartments, along with 32 townhomes. Designed by Ottawa-based Hobin Architecture, the firm received the 2022 Design Excellence Award for a NotforProfit Project for the Phase One design.
Beyond providing much-needed affordable housing, these developments are breathing new life into the neighbourhood, adding modern amenities, inviting public spaces, and thoughtful design that brings neighbours together and strengthens community.
Giguère emphasizes OCH’s commitment to the environment and sustainable building. “For us, sustainability is how we take care of our buildings, our communities, and the people in them—for the long term,” he explains. It includes studying the existing housing portfolio to incorporate sustainable features, integrating green design into new developments, and supporting sustainable practices within both our operations and the communities we serve.
OCH’s people-centred approach to community housing is resonating with tenants, who are encouraged to provide input on the issues that matter to them. “We make decisions within budgetary limits, but our goal is always to create opportunities for tenants to share their perspectives,” explains Giguère. He notes that OCH’s co-design approach involves tenants in a wide range of decisions, from choosing paint colors for existing buildings to shaping new programs.
That input comes through multiple channels, including “pulse surveys” — 26,000 of which were completed last year alone — as well as through community events and tenant meetings. The dialogue benefits residents who gain meaningful opportunities to engage with management, but it also strengthens OCH as an organization. According to Giguère, the OCH tenants’ association is 700-member strong, an unusually high number compared with other landlords, what further stands out is how actively tenants volunteer and give back to the community.
Despite managing a workforce of more than 500 employees, 1,000 contractors and about 1,400 volunteers, Giguère exudes a very approachable, no-job-too-small mindset. He credits the corporate mission of striving to be “the best possible service delivery agency in affordable housing” with keeping the team focused on the importance of their work. He says employees share the corporation’s C.A.R.E. Values—Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, Excellence—and are “looking to make a difference in someone’s life.” Even routine maintenance, like fixing a doorknob in a resident’s apartment is handled with care Even if it’s simply fixing a doorknob in a resident’s apartment, Giguère wants that tenant to have the best experience.
Ottawa Community Housing is in good hands with Stéphane Giguère at the helm. As for the next generation, as Governer of the University of Ottawa, he is lending his experience and wisdom to establishing a program around housing and real estate at the university’s Telfer School of Management—a program that will no doubt educate future leaders to create people-centred communities where individuals have the resources to flourish, live sustainably, and give back—not simply build homes.
To learn more about Ottawa Community Housing or the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation, visit Ottawa Community Housing.
Header Photo: OLM Staff
