RENT SMART IN ACTION
Latest Projects + InnovationWe are always building and expanding to improve our impact.
Here are some of our latest projects we’re excited to share with you.
A Rent Smart Collaboration
Calgary Rent Smart
2021-22 Program
with The City of Calgary Home Program
The 2021-22 program offers Calgary tenants, Housing and other service providers a range of free tenant education resources for renters, and those supporting tenants. To date, we have offered information sessions, tenancy legislation webinars, and access to our RentSmart Certificate Online self-directed tenancy education course.
We are currently providing co-facilitation and support for Calgary service providers who are advocates for their clients and want to use RentSmart Basics as a means for tenants to gain skills and knowledge to navigate through tenancy challenges.
Project completion is scheduled for September 2022.
**This project is made possible through financial support of the City of Calgary. We gratefully acknowledge the Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre Society as a long-standing Rent Smart Partner & Regional Champion.
MORE DETAILS:
Rent Smart Education and Support Society was approached by the Nunavut Housing Corporation to develop a customized tenant education program in partnership with Ilitaqsiniq-Nunavut Literacy Council.
This program is grounded in Inuit Societal Values and takes into consideration the unique factors related to tenancy in the Nunavut Territory.
The materials will be available in both Inuktitut and English.
It’s an exciting project and we look forward to sharing more as it continues to develop.
Scheduled to Launch in 2022/23.
A NEW RentSmart Course
Foundations
The Foundations course is born out of a well-identified need for those who work in supportive roles with tenants to better understand and navigate residential tenancy matters. Based largely on our successful RTA pilot project in 2020, we have developed the Foundations course.
Our focus is to increase the knowledge, confidence, and skills of participants through practical and participatory tenancy curriculum.
Our hope is that by empowering those who support tenants, we can help to improve tenant housing experience by creating greater stability and confidence with their tenancies, and to avoid eviction.
Topics include:
- Privacy and Human Rights legislation
- Legal/illegal fees
- Tenancy agreements
- Affordability
- Roommates
- Maintenance responsibilities
- Evictions
- Rent increases
- Dispute resolution and more!
“I feel like I am more capable of educating tenants about their rights and responsibilities & respond more effectively to issues that come up.”
– Rent Smart Course Participant
Learn how to navigate the challenges of tenant rights and responsibilities to improve housing stability in your community.
For questions or more information, please contact our BC Provincial Coordinator, Christina Elliot, at christina@rentsmarteducation.org
To ensure our efforts and quality of education remain at the highest level, after the Foundations pilot, we worked with a third-party to evaluate and compile an Executive Summary of the results.
*We are currently at capacity with this service.
Want to learn more?
Custom Curriculum
Fee for service or joint grant applications
Rent Smart’s tenant education curriculum was developed to meet as broad an audience as possible. However, we recognize that some folks or organizations would benefit from a customized approach.
Rent Smart is offering a limited number (based on our capacity) of customized tenant education programs to meet a variety of needs. We will explore funding options with you and work together to develop a curriculum that reflects your organizations needs so you can better meet the needs of tenants.
The customized curriculum packages may be tied into the broader Rent Smart system or be independent stand-alone programs.