BRAMPTON, ON — September 1, 2026 — The Afro Caribbean Business Network (ACBN) has opened a $1.5 million community bond raise to complete the financing of its affordable senior and community housing development at 175 Springbank Avenue in Woodstock, Ontario. The project already carries $16 million in secured government funding, is targeted for full occupancy in December 2027, and will be owned by the community when it is complete.

Fifty per cent of the units will be offered below market rent. The development is being built in partnership with Bethany Lutheran Church and the County of Oxford, with $14 million in federal funding and a further $2 million from the Province of Ontario and the County of Oxford.

The land is secured, the environmental assessment and Class B engineering report are complete, and government capital is in place. The community bond is the piece that moves the project into longevity — covering land carrying and operational costs so the building has buffer to operate long term.

“Grants build programs. They rarely build long term assets,” said Ryan Knight, co.founder and Executive Director of ACBN. “We have spent nine years helping Black entrepreneurs get funded. A community bond means the people who live here can finance the building, earn a return on it seeing dollars circulate instead of leaving the community.”

A Different Kind of Capital

A community bond is an interest-bearing investment that individuals and institutions make in a nonprofit, co-operative, or charity — a loan from the community, to the community. Investors lend capital, the organization uses it to build or acquire a revenue-generating asset, and investors are repaid principal plus interest out of that asset's revenue. The asset, and its returns, stay in community hands.

Pioneered in Ontario by 10C and the Centre for Social Innovation, the model is now used by nonprofits across Canada. ACBN is among the first Black-led organizations in the province to run one at this scale. Rental income from the completed Woodstock building will repay bond investors and provide ACBN with sustainable, non-grant-dependent revenue to fund its programs.

Built on a Track Record of Delivery

Founded in Brampton in 2017, ACBN has secured more than $10.7 million in grants and funding since inception and has processed over 400 microloan applications, funding 21 entrepreneurs through its Microloan Fund in partnership with Alterna Savings. Independent analysis of ACBN's model finds every dollar invested generates $8.55 in social return — measured in businesses stabilized, revenues grown, predatory loans avoided, and home lives improved.

ACBN has also helped other community organizations raise capital of their own, including successful Investment Readiness Program awards for Custodia and ResQ Youth International, and more than $2.3 million won by workshop participants across 170 successful applications. Following its own raise, ACBN intends to help up to five organizations run their own community bonds.

“Capital for our project. Capacity for yours,” Knight said. “We are running this raise in the open — structure, legal, marketing, close — so that the next organization does not have to start from scratch.”

Community Town Halls Continue Across the GTA

ACBN launched the campaign with a town hall at Century Gardens Recreation Centre in Brampton on August 8. Town halls will be in various citiessuch as: Scarborough, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to name a few. The sessions are free and open to the public, and cover how community bonds work, the ACBN Woodstock project's financing, and how to join the investor interest list.

Follow the Journey

ACBN is documenting the project publicly from financing through to occupancy. Community members, prospective investors, partner organizations, and media can follow progress, view project details, and join the investor interest list at: https://acbncanada.com/acbn-affordable-housing/

About the Afro Caribbean Business Network (ACBN)

ACBN helps Black entrepreneurs build sustainable, successful businesses by removing systemic barriers and connecting entrepreneurs of African and Caribbean heritage to funding, resources, mentorship, and networks. Its 3C Framework™ — Clarity, Connection, Capital — moves entrepreneurs from loan-ready to funded through the Loan Readiness Program, weekly Entrepreneur Drop-Ins, and a Microloan Fund that serves as the beginning level of a structured Loan Hierarchy graduating businesses toward commercial banking. ACBN reaches more than 30,000 Black entrepreneurs through a network of 40-plus partner organizations in the Black EntrepreneurshipEcosystem. The ACBN Affordable Housing Project in Woodstock is its first direct real estate development.

Media Contact

Ryan Knight, Executive Director
Afro Caribbean Business Network
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. • 647-225-3309
350 Rutherford Road South, Plaza 2, Unit 104, Brampton, Ontario L6W 4N6