Kathy McGrenera
Fortunate to be born and raised in North Vancouver, Kathy McGrenera has always given back to her community. Kathy is a founder and community leader of Quayside Village, the original cohousing project in Lower Lonsdale. Quayside seeks to create a modern village in an urban setting. Kathy has helped implement a range of environmental design features saving water and energy, diverting over 90% of their waste, growing food, and ensuring the shared indoor and outdoor spaces form the heart of this vibrant community. Kathy’s leadership has helped make Quayside an internationally recognized model of affordable housing, environmental sustainability and a community where both aging in place and raising a family can thrive. Recently, Kathy worked as one of the project managers for a second cohousing project now completed in central Lonsdale, Driftwood Village Cohousing.
Kathy is a parent and holds numerous certifications. In addition to a BA, a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Women’s Studies and a Masters in Education, Kathy is a certified group facilitator and trained bookkeeper. Kathy has been a small business owner, operating a successful community based licensed daycare for more than a decade. A passionate volunteer and financial steward, Kathy is the Treasurer of her Strata and an active board member of both the Canadian Cohousing Network and the Vancouver Tap Dance Society.
Kathy is currently a collaborating team member with AAHA (Architects Against Housing Alienation), with profs from UBC and the University of Waterloo along with architects and activists, who won the bid for the Canada Pavillion entry into the Venice Biennale for Architecture in May 2023. Teams across Canada are working on innovative responses to housing affordability, homelessness, indigenous housing and other innovative responses to Canada's housing challenges.
"Kathy has always been involved in her community and I'm thrilled to see her bring her experience in developing co-housing projects to the political arena as a municipal candidate!"
Bowinn Ma
“Friends often describe me as being a great listener and having the most energy they’ve ever seen. I’d like to put my energy, skills and values to work on the North Vancouver City council for the whole community”
Kathy McGrenera