Community Housing Canada – Partners in Resilience

Drs. Das (co-applicant) and Collins (applicant) received SSHRC funds to formulate future research priorities in Canadian community housing through a process of collaboration.

Across Canada, many households on low and modest incomes struggle to access affordable, suitable and adequate housing. Home ownership is often priced out of their reach and renting in the private market consumes a high proportion of their incomes. For these households, community housing offers a pathway to home; indeed, it has been characterized as “the backbone of Canada’s response to housing challenges.”(1, p13) The community housing sector in Canada includes more than 628,000 units, provided by over 3000 public and non-profit organizations. It faces significant challenges – including expiring operating agreements, aging housing stock, insufficient access to capital and limited capacity to increase supply.(2) Canada’s National Housing Strategy (NHS) acknowledges these problems, and signals a new era in community housing centred on repair, renewal and expansion. It situates investment in community housing within a rights-based framework that will prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable Canadians.

In this project, comprises six research clusters generated through a consultative process: five Areas of Inquiry and one Cross-Cutting Theme. Each Area of Inquiry is focused on a substantive policy issue, while the Cross-Cutting Theme informs and supports the Inquiries. Our governance structures, budgetary model and bespoke conceptual framework will guide the research clusters as they pursue the following goals: (1) To foster understanding and support operationalization of a rights-based approach to community housing; (2) To improve the environmental performance of community housing buildings; (3) To assess the role of community housing in promoting social inclusion and economic opportunity; (4) To document diverse models of community housing, and evaluate their efficiency and effectiveness; (5) To identify alternative understandings of the purpose and function of community housing, and determine their implications for investment in the sector; (6) To ensure the research is attentive to the needs of vulnerable Canadians. Dr. Das leads Area 2 on Building Performance.

Within each research cluster, Co-Investigators, graduate students and community partners will collaborate to develop and pursue projects addressing their research goal. Our shared mission is to bolster the community housing sector’s functions and capacity, so that it can better meet the needs of the 1-in-8 Canadian households who require assistance in realizing their right to housing.

1. Canada (2017a). National Housing Strategy: A Place to Call Home. Ottawa. Downloaded from:
https://www.placetocallhome.ca/-/media/sf/project/placetocallhome/pdfs/canada-national-housingstrategy.pdf
2. Housing Partnership Canada (2015). Business Transformation: Promising Practices for Social and
Affordable Housing in Canada. Centre for Urban Research & Education (CURE), Carleton
University. Downloaded from:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5592d584e4b00902628fe882/t/562144b4e4b055379f3d3a5d/1445020852144/HPC+Business+Transformation+FINAL+Sept+28+2015.pdf