SENIOR DIRECTOR

John is the founder of Two Steps Home, and the Founding Partner of SvN Architects + Planners (see www.svn-ap.com). Since 1978, he has been the driving force behind the firm’s integrated architectural, planning, landscape, and urban design practice. Over the past 40 years, SvN has focused on housing-for-all-incomes, land settlement, and infrastructure in cities and landscapes undergoing constant growth and renewal. He served as Chair of the Boards of the Home First Society and Houselink Community Homes in their early days. In 2018, he created Parcel Developments to focus on evolutionary housing and its application to entry-level housing for all incomes. Most recently, John created Two Steps Home to address homelessness more directly.

DIRECTOR & SECRETARY-TREASURER

Sheila Penny was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) in 2019. After 19 years with Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Sheila joined TCHC in 2013 as Vice President, Facilities Management. She is a highly experienced facilities executive, able to lead diverse teams to deliver all aspects of capital construction and facilities operations.

Sheila also had a highly successful career for 10 years in the private sector with Moriyama & Teshima Architects as an associate and senior architect, as well as 2 years in her own private practice, before joining the public sector.

DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS

Robert is a Tkaronto-based designer, researcher, maker, and amplifier of voices. Passionate about suitable and sustainable housing, he has a background in architecture, woodworking, life-cycle carbon thinking, and community engagement for chronically-unhoused populations. Robert was a carpenter with Khaleel Seivwright’s Toronto Tiny Shelters project from 2020-2021, helping build several of the 110 shelters and delivering them to parks with Khaleel. He holds a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Toronto.

DIRECTOR

Erik is a Director with Two Steps Home with a background in architecture and real estate. He will serve as an advisor on project direction, uses of funding, staging public open houses and exhibitions and overall neighbourhood stakeholder engagement.

LEAD, CAPITAL PROJECTS

Anna is a resettlement specialist and municipal engineer with over 30 years of international project experience. She has led a number of complex land acquisition, land use planning, impact assessment, and infrastructure planning projects, and brings to her work an intimate familiarity with both the stakeholder engagement and technical work streams required in successful resettlement and community building. She has worked with a broad range of private and public sector clients around the world, including the World Bank and the IFC in North America, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.  Her particular specialty is in the planning, design and construction of new communities, with an emphasis on cost control and schedule. Anna has a Masters in Engineering and was inducted into the Engineering Hall of Distinction at the University of Toronto in 2013.

LEAD ARCHITECT

Aaron is a partner and leads SvN's Regenerative Practice, which considers how architecture and urban environments can co-evolve with natural systems. He is a creative thinker, pragmatic designer and environmental champion with over two decades of architecture, planning and sustainability consulting experience on diverse projects. As the leader of SvN's Regenerative Practice, Aaron brings together the firm's architects, landscape architects, planners and urban designers in a unique design process to develop zero-carbon, circular and resilient communities. His approach bridges architectural design with environmental analysis and technical knowledge to deliver climate-positive design solutions. He began his career in Toronto, followed by international experience in Ghana, Indonesia, the Philippines, France, New York and London.

MANAGER, CAPITAL PROJECTS

Larry is a project engineer and project manager with over 30 years of experience implementing capital projects. He built dozens of mobile tiny shelters with Khaleel Seivwright and others of Toronto Tiny Shelters to improve the physical, mental and emotional health and welfare and avoid deaths of homeless people living rough in Toronto outdoors and parks during Winter of 2020. He is a volunteer crew leader with Habitat For Humanity GTA, for personnel from companies and organizations to build homes at several sites in the Toronto area. He has worked with various NGOs overseas in Israel. Mali, Haiti, Cambodia, Mongolia, Guatemala. Larry also works with GlobalMedic and their Rapid Response Team.

FOUNDER, TORONTO TINY SHELTERS

Khaleel Seivwright is an experienced carpenter who has built homes across Canada. He is the founder of the former Toronto Tiny Shelters, who led a team of volunteers to build 110 shelters for unhoused folks living in parks during the COVID lockdown of 2020 and 2021. Khaleel was featured in the documentary Someone Lives Here, chronicling the six months he spent running Toronto Tiny Shelters. Khaleel has been an instrumental part of getting Two Steps Home off the ground, and continues to be a friend of the group as he embarks on the next chapter of his life on the east coast of Canada. All of us are grateful to him for his vision and contributions to shelter in Toronto over the last four years!

ADVISOR, BETTERSTREET CONSULTING