Build faster
Modular, factory-built homes arrive ready to assemble, cutting construction time dramatically and reaching remote communities before another winter sets in.
Pleiades Housing Alliance · Federally incorporated non-profit
We prepare First Peoples and Indigenous Nations to build and own durable homes.
We are a Canadian non-profit that raises philanthropic capital and does the groundwork government money will not fund — community engagement, housing assessments, and grant navigation — so First Peoples and Indigenous Nations can design, build and own prefabricated modular homes made for their land, their climate and their culture.
157,453 homes are needed to close the First Nations housing gap
Guided by the Stars. Grounded in the Home.
Our Mission
Deliver safe, durable, Net-Zero, and culturally appropriate prefabricated modular homes that foster long-term economic self-determination and community capacity building.
We are more than a housing organization; we are a movement dedicated to ensuring that every Indigenous family and Elder is not merely housed, but sovereign within a home that honours their traditions and energy-efficient needs.
Pleiades Housing Alliance is a strategic financial and technical partner that connects investment capital with the urgent need for high-quality housing in First Peoples and Indigenous Nations. We help communities build durable, culturally appropriate homes faster, without compromising on quality, ownership, or dignity.
Build warmer
Every home is engineered for the Canadian north, high-efficiency envelopes that slash heating bills, reduce mould, and protect families' health year-round.
Build together
Communities lead. We provide the capital, technical know-how, and project support. Homes are owned, maintained, and shaped by the people who live in them.
Where PHA is today
A founding-year organization with a specific job to do.
PHA is not presenting future homes as completed results. We are building the preparation that makes a community ready to pursue construction funding.
Incorporated federally
Corporation No. 1460040-1 under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act.
Communities in dialogue
Scugog Island First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation are identified on our governance page as communities in active dialogue.
Homes completed by PHA
The first home is still unbuilt. Our current work is readiness, governance, capital formation and grant navigation.
Who is behind this
Led by people who have done this before.
Pleiades Housing Alliance is run by a named team and governed by a board, not an anonymous committee. Here are two of them.
Eric Nielsen
Executive Director45+ years of financial leadership and CFO experience in the charitable sector. Specialist in cross-sector asset management and structuring non-profit governance to maximize public funding pipelines. Senior financial professional and corporate officer since 1979.
Jamie teiorakawate Rice
Director, Indigenous Relations & EngagementMohawk Nation member. Expert in bridging partnerships between corporate stakeholders and First Nations leadership, aligning consultation frameworks with the traditional Great Law. Diverse public service background since 1987 spanning community advocacy, teaching, and storytelling.
A three-member board, six directors, and our strategic advisors — eleven people, all named, with their backgrounds and our governance structure set out in full.
Meet the full team and board
How your gift multiplies
Our goal is to have every philanthropic dollar unlock five dollars in government housing grants.
Government programs fund construction but not the preparation that makes construction possible: the community engagement, site assessments, governance work, and grant navigation. PHA's philanthropic capital does exactly that, converting potential government investment into actual homes. Without it, public dollars sit inaccessible. With it, the whole system moves.
Goals
$30M+
Philanthropic Campaign
Catalytic seed capital, raised from high-net-worth individuals, family foundations, and corporate partners, that stands up governance, engages communities, and makes PHA grant-ready from day one.
1 : 5
Leverage Mechanic
Every $1 in philanthropic capital is intended to pursue up to $5 in government housing grants, from programs such as Build Canada Homes, the Rapid Housing Initiative, and the Affordable Housing Fund, subject to eligibility, application requirements and approval.
$150M+
Annual Grant Engine
The government capital unlocked at steady state, funding the construction of Net-Zero prefabricated modular homes and deployed to aligned Indigenous-led housing programs across Canada.
PHA's target funding model is designed to leverage each philanthropic dollar to pursue up to five dollars in available government funding, subject to program eligibility, approvals and funding availability.
How the capital model works
Our beginning
Every alliance starts with one refusal to look away.
The Heart: A Story Seven Generations in the Making
Imagine waking this January morning inside a home where the walls are damp with mould. Your breath fogs the air, and frost edges the window beside your bed from the inside. You share this room with two siblings, and through the thin wall, you hear your grandmother coughing, as she has every winter you can remember.
For tens of thousands of Indigenous families across Canada, this is not a story from a century ago; it is this morning. When housing fails, everything built upon it fails with it: health, education, and the quiet confidence of children who grow up never knowing what it means to feel permanently, safely rooted. The Pleiades Housing Alliance was born to meet this systemic neglect with a systemic remedy.
The Pleiades Housing Alliance (PHA) is a federally incorporated non-profit established to resolve the acute housing crisis facing First Peoples and Indigenous Nations across Canada. We operate as a strategic technical and financial intermediary, bridging the gap between high-impact philanthropy and large-scale government housing grants.
Our mission is to deliver safe, durable, Net-Zero, and culturally appropriate prefabricated modular homes that foster long-term economic self-determination and community capacity building. We are more than a housing organization; we are a movement dedicated to ensuring that every Indigenous family and Elder is not merely housed, but sovereign within a home that honours their traditions and energy-efficient needs.
“We do not build simply for the moment; we build to protect and sustain the next Seven Generations.” Jamie teiorakawate Rice, Director, Indigenous Relations & Engagement
What we're building is a founding circle, forming right now, to bridge philanthropic capital and technical expertise so First Peoples and Indigenous Nations can design, build, and own prefabricated modular homes made for their land, their climate, and their culture, not for them, but with them. The first home is still unbuilt. Being early is the whole gift, and it's the part you get to give.
“We can't undo the winters that already passed. We can make sure the next one is warm.” Eric Nielsen, Executive Director
Why it matters
The Canadian housing gap is solvable, with the right partners.
$135B+the cost of closing the First Nations housing gap by 2030Assembly of First Nations, 2023
157,453homes are needed to close the First Nations housing gapAssembly of First Nations, 2023
235,000+people experience homelessness in Canada each year, and about 35% of those counted are Indigenous — a population that is just 5% of Canada.Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (Homeless Hub), State of Homelessness in Canada; national Point-in-Time counts, 2020–2022
80%of First Nations housing needs remain unmet, four audits over 20 yearsAuditor General of Canada, March 2024
How it is built
How a home is built, far from the factory, close to home.
Modular, prefabricated construction brings a high-quality, energy-efficient home together quickly, even in remote communities where every week before winter counts.
How our programs work
Organization-owned operational media
How we work
A clear path from capital to keys-in-hand.
We sit at the intersection of finance, engineering, and community leadership, turning fragmented funding into homes that last generations.
Listen
We partner with a community to understand their needs, land, climate, and cultural priorities.
Structure
We assemble blended capital (grants, impact investment, and partnerships) into a viable project.
Build
Our target is for high-quality prefabricated modular homes to be manufactured, delivered, and assembled on site with local crews.
Sustain
Communities own and maintain the homes, with training and reporting that build long-term capacity.
Culturally appropriate by design
Homes that honour the people who live in them.
A house is more than walls. Our designs are developed with communities to reflect how families gather, live on the land, and pass culture between generations, not imposed from the outside.
- Designed with, not for, the community
- Built for northern and remote climates
- Community ownership and local employment
- Energy efficiency that lowers lifetime cost
Up to 50% faster
to a finished, occupied home using modular construction
Housing is child welfare
53.8%
of children in foster care in Canada are Indigenous — while Indigenous children are just 7.7% of all children under 15.
Sometimes the distance between a family staying whole and a child taken into care is nothing more than a warm, dry room.
Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census, via the Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal.
Be the difference
Your investment becomes someone's first warm winter.
Whether you give once, give monthly, or partner on a project, you're funding dignity, health, and stability for a family that has waited far too long.
Our three promises
Generosity without accountability is not generosity at all.
Full financial transparency
Audit-ready governance and institutionally sound financial controls from day one.
Public accountability
Full public disclosure of financials, annual filings, and senior leadership compensation.
Debt-free development
We build only on secured capital, refusing to leave debt for future generations.
For corporate partners
Make reconciliation measurable.
Back measurable social impact your board and stakeholders can stand behind, and report on with confidence. A partnership with PHA gives you a credible, documented, Indigenous-endorsed Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) outcome.
Measurable social impact
100% transparent reporting
Indigenous-led partnerships
Become a partner