The City of Thunder Bay has awarded ModBox Modular the design-build contract to deliver its Temporary Shelter Village — 80 modular sleeping cabins plus shared laundry, washroom, and dining buildings — on the Hillyard lands. The project is part of Ontario's $10.7M investment in 186 new supportive housing and shelter spaces in Thunder Bay.
The City of Thunder Bay has selected ModBox Modular as the design-build partner for its Temporary Shelter Village — a turn-key modular housing program for unhoused community members on the Hillyard lands at the end of Alloy Drive. Under the contract, ModBox is responsible for the design, fabrication, and on-site delivery of the entire village; Demetrakopoulos Enterprises has been awarded the separate operator contract.
The village comprises 80 modular sleeping cabins (pod units) plus a set of shared common buildings — including a dedicated laundry building, washroom facilities, and a common dining building. Cabins and amenity buildings are factory-built at ModBox's Thunder Bay yard and trucked to the Hillyard site, allowing the city to compress what would normally be a multi-year construction program into a single deployable wave of modules.
The project sits within Ontario's broader $10.7 million investment to deliver 186 new supportive housing and shelter spaces in Thunder Bay, announced through the Homelessness Prevention Program. For ModBox, the commission is the latest in a sequence of public-sector and First Nations design-build engagements — alongside teacher housing in Pikangikum, multi-unit residential builds, and community fitness facilities across Northwestern Ontario.
The first 20 cabins are targeted for delivery by the end of June 2026, with the full village scheduled to come online by late spring 2026. The Temporary Shelter Village is operated as a dignified, low-barrier alternative to encampments, with shared services concentrated in the common buildings so individual cabins remain quiet, private spaces.
