In the final episode of this three-part series, The Equity Gap goes inside the CLT-credit union solutions lab. We hear about why Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation invested in solutions labs as a way to tackle Canada’s housing crisis. Lab participants walk us through the portfolio of solutions they've been prototyping, and the ones they're most excited to see tested in the real world — from blended finance tools that let credit unions stack mortgage debt with community and foundation capital, to GICs that let community members fund CLT acquisitions directly through their credit union.

It’s certain that one of the lab’s most durable outputs may be the relationships and trust built between the credit union and CLT sectors. As one participant puts it, the relationships built here are what turn strangers from two different sectors ...