ECOASIS, a healthy housing project of ASEQ-EHAQ
A healthy place to live, for people who can't live safely anywhere else.
ECOASIS is a housing community planned for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), on land we already hold in the Laurentians. The land is secured. Your gift now pays for the work that turns it into a buildable plan.
- Every gift goes to a designated ECOASIS fund
- Official tax receipt for eligible gifts
- Give once or every month
Watch the vision.
Why people with MCS need housing built differently, and what ECOASIS will look like.
ECOASIS and housing for people with MCS (French version)
Ordinary buildings push people with MCS out of their homes.
For someone with MCS, the air inside a typical building can make a home impossible to live in. Our helpline hears it constantly, and our research on refused accommodation documents it.
- Fragranced cleaning in shared hallways and common areas
- Pesticide treatments in the building
- Renovations and materials that off-gas for months
- A neighbour's dryer sheets venting near a window
New to MCS? Here is what it is.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a chronic health condition and a recognized disability in Canada and internationally. Reactions are triggered by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other chemicals in everyday products, often at very low levels.
What triggers it
Fragrances, cleaning and laundry products, air fresheners, pesticides, and chemicals released by building materials and furnishings.
How it affects people
Symptoms can involve several body systems at once: headaches and brain fog, breathing problems, digestive, heart, muscle and skin reactions.
Why a home matters most
There is no cure. The approach supported by the medical literature is reducing exposure, starting where people spend the most time. For many, that means a safe home is the foundation of everything else.
People with MCS have a legal right to reasonable accommodation under Canadian human rights law.
Learn more about MCSHousing designed around clean air, from the ground up.
ECOASIS is a healthy housing project on land ASEQ-EHAQ already holds in the Laurentians, designed for people who cannot live safely anywhere else, and for a community that understands why.
Plans include affordable homes with modest workspaces, a community hall and kitchen, organic gardens and accessible walking trails, on a site chosen away from traffic, industry, agricultural spraying and other sources of contamination.
"ECOASIS was envisioned as a community: a place where people living with MCS could live safely, participate fully, support one another, and reconnect with community life."
Lowest-emission materials
Every material chosen for what it releases into the air, and cleared of emissions before anyone moves in.
Fragrance-free operation
Cleaning, maintenance and shared spaces run without fragranced products, as a rule of the community rather than a favour to ask.
Ventilation designed for residents
Mechanical ventilation planned around people who react to trace exposures, not around minimum code.
A community that understands
Neighbours who live by the same rules because they need them too, which ends the isolation so many people with MCS live with.
The original concept
Drawings from ECOASIS's first design work. The feasibility phase will test and update them.
From the ECOASIS campaign
Graphics ASEQ-EHAQ has used to share the project.
The land is secured. The next step is the plan.
We are fundraising for one phase at a time. Feasibility and design comes first; the build follows with its own campaign.
1Land
25 acres donated to ASEQ-EHAQ, with zoning changes and tax measures from the Municipality of Mille-Isles.
2Feasibility and design
Turns the land into a costed, buildable project that builders, lenders and major funders can say yes to.
3Build
Construction of the homes and shared spaces, funded through a separate capital campaign.
Where the land is
Mille-Isles, in the Laurentians: a clean-air area about an hour and a half from Montréal and 30 minutes from Saint-Jérôme, the nearest town with social services and community infrastructure.
The land is on the traditional territories of the Algonquin (Omàmìwininìwag), Mohawk (Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) and Anishinabewaki peoples.
What feasibility and design covers
Four pieces of work, each one a document funders and partners can review.
ECOASIS has already completed professional and technical studies. This phase brings that work up to date for today's costs, programs and building standards.
- Site and environmental assessmentSoil, water, air quality and access on the actual site.
- Architectural conceptA design built on lowest-emission principles from the first drawing.
- Governance modelWho owns, runs and lives at ECOASIS, and how decisions are made.
- Capital planWhat the build will cost and how it will be funded.
ECOASIS has come further than most housing projects ever do
Two decades of work by people living with MCS, with support from every level of government along the way.
- 2004ASEQ-EHAQ is founded and begins documenting the housing barriers people with MCS face.
- 2013Land is donated in Mille-Isles. On February 7, the Société d'habitation du Québec reserves 40 units for ECOASIS under AccèsLogis Québec, and the municipality adopts zoning changes and tax measures.
- 2019More than 90 people are on the ECOASIS waiting list. CMHC accepts an application for a $700,000 contribution from the National Housing Strategy Innovation Fund.
- 2020CMHC confirms its intention to contribute $700,000, recognizing ECOASIS as a model that can inform housing elsewhere in Canada.
- 2022Regional health authorities (CISSS des Laurentides) acknowledge the need for healthy, safe and affordable housing in the region.
- NowFeasibility and design, funded by donors and partners who want to see ECOASIS built.
The project was later suspended while government authorities reviewed questions about its intended residents. The need it was built to meet has only grown.
One phase, one clear goal.
The feasibility and design phase is the first amount we are raising, and it unlocks everything after it. A finished study and design is what governments, lenders and major donors ask to see before they commit to a capital project.
The full build will follow with its own campaign, so every gift today has one job: getting ECOASIS to a plan that can be built.
Naming opportunities and multi-year gifts are available with board approval. Talk to us about what fits.
- Site and environmental assessment
- Architectural concept
- Governance model
- Capital plan
Then: the build, through its own capital campaign.
Why it matters beyond our members
A model other communities can copy
Nothing like ECOASIS exists in Canada. It was designed from the start as a demonstration model, and CMHC's Innovation Fund recognized its potential to guide similar housing across the country.
Training for the trades
The build itself can train young tradespeople in lowest-emission construction, a skill the whole industry will need as expectations for indoor air quality rise.
Give, or help us build it.
Every gift and every partnership moves ECOASIS from land to a plan that can be built.
Your gift, tracked to ECOASIS
Your gift goes to a designated ECOASIS fund, tracked separately from general donations so you can see exactly where it went.
Give to ECOASIS- Official tax receipt for eligible gifts
- Give once or every month
- Secure payment processed by Zeffy
- Naming opportunities and multi-year gifts available with board approval
ASEQ-EHAQ is a registered Canadian charity (No. 81011 6624 RR0001). Zeffy is free for charities and asks donors for an optional tip; you can set it to $0. Prefer to give by cheque, transfer or securities? Contact office@aseq-ehaq.ca.
Partner with us
ECOASIS needs more than money. If your organization can lend expertise, land a grant or open a door, we would like to hear from you.
- Architects and designersShape the concept and the lowest-emission design.
- Builders and tradesAdvise on costs, methods and clean worksites.
- Foundations and fundersFund the feasibility phase or the build.
- Municipalities and governmentHelp with approvals, programs and public support.
Prefer email? Write to office@aseq-ehaq.ca.
Living with MCS and hoping to live at ECOASIS?
There are currently no eligibility restrictions. Join the waiting list, tell us what you need, and add your voice.