About Us
Jim Dunn
Chair, Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC)
Professor, Health, Aging and Society, McMaster University
Associate Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, McMaster University
Jim Dunn’s research program, spanning more than 25 years, is focussed on creating solutions to Canada’s housing crisis and examining the link between affordable housing and health. His long-term study of the health and social impacts of the mixed-income redevelopment of Toronto’s Regent Park, a large public housing development, is the only one of its kind ever conducted in Canada. From 2017-18 he was co-Principal Investigator for the evaluation of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot, examining income insecurity and health inequalities. He created CHEC, a knowledge-mobilization and research-capacity-building hub, funded by the CMHC and housed at McMaster University, with the aim to bring expertise to the key debates in housing policy and to stimulate new research and housing data. He was awarded the 2024 Gold Roof Award for knowledge to action by the CMHC for his Housing Sustainability & Investment Roadmap (HSIR) project with the City of Hamilton. He was also awarded the 2025 Trailblazer award for senior career scholars from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH). Jim established Canada’s first graduate degree in Housing Policy, the Master of Public Policy in Housing Policy at McMaster, which aims to train the next generation of housing leaders in Canada. The first cohort of 10 students graduated in 2026.
Steve Pomeroy
Executive Advisor to CHEC
Head of Focus Consulting Inc.
Industry Professor, McMaster University
Steve holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning and has over 45 years of experience in policy research, strategic analysis, program implementation and market research. The substantive focus of much of his work has been housing and urban research. He has worked in the municipal level as an urban planner (1980-82) the non-profit sector in co-operative housing development (1983-83), and from 1984-1994 held a variety of positions with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Steve established Focus Consulting Inc. in 1994 and has completed over 240 housing reports and studies. He is widely recognized as one of the leading housing policy experts in Canada and was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition for his contributions to housing policy and research. Steve has been an advisor to national associations, municipalities, provinces and territories, as well as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada’s federal housing agency. His work also includes a number of comparative studies examining housing systems across a range of countries, in comparison to Canada. Steve assisted Jim Dunn in establishing Canada’s first graduate degree in Housing Policy, the Master of Public Policy in Housing Policy at McMaster, in which he teaches housing policy.
Duncan MacLennan
Executive Advisor to CHEC
Adjunct Professor, McMaster University
Emeritus Professor, University of Glasgow
Duncan MacLennan is an applied economist with interests in the functioning of, and policies for, cities, neighbourhoods, and housing. He has held senior academic posts at the Universities of Glasgow and St Andrews, is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Glasgow, Adjunct Professor in Housing Economics at McMaster University (Ontario) and at the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW (Sydney). He has held visiting Chairs in Economics at the University of California at Berkeley (Regent’s Professor) and at the Wharton Business School (Sussman Chair). He has advised international agencies, including the World Bank, The European Union and the OECD, as Principal Consultant on Urban Affairs from 1984-96 as well as individual governments, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Ireland, Sweden and France. He has also advised the UK and Scottish Government Departments on economic, cities and housing issues. Duncan spent three years as Special Adviser to the first two First Ministers of Scotland, two years as Chief Economist and Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Policy in the Government of Victoria, and five years as Chief Economist in the Federal Department for Infrastructure in Canada.