Many low- and moderate-income families in Canada struggle to access affordable, safe and adequate housing. Home ownership is priced out of their reach in many regions, and renting in the private market consumes an increasing proportion of their incomes. In this context, the community housing sector has a key role to play in meeting housing needs. Accounting for 16% of all rental units in Canada, this sector includes diverse government, not- for-profit and co-operative providers. It insulates tenants from the commodification of housing and provides vital access to affordable units, including through rents-geared -to-income. The sector also faces a range of complex pressures. Demand for community housing is growing due to affordability challenges, and becoming more diverse due to changing household types. Providers are increasingly expected to meet goals of social inclusion and improved environmental performance, often with limited human resources capacity. Asset management is a complex task. with expiring operating agreements, aging stock and significant deferred maintenance. In addition, research on the sector is modest, with relatively little work considering how best to respond to these challenges.

The goal of this one-year partnership is to identify what is required to build a resilient and sustainable community housing sector in Canada. Drawing on the knowledge and capacity of the sector itself, we will pursue four specific objectives:

1. To develop consensus on substantive definitions of ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ as they apply to community housing;
2. To identify ways for providers to improve their resilience and sustainability, and measure their impacts of their initiatives;
3. To conceptualize how the National Housing Strategy will shape the sector;
4. To decide on research priorities for community housing over the next five years.

To pursue these objectives and inform practice in the community housing sector, we will employ the Café Pracadémique model as both methodology and knowledge mobilization approach. Drawing on traditions of public intellectualism and interdisciplinary cooperation, Café Pracadémique engages practitioners, policy makers, scholars and citizens in conversation about issues of shared interest and concern. It will be utilized as a forum for developing knowledge in an interdisciplinary field that currently lacks a cohesive understanding of key concepts, challenges and practices. It will also provide a platform for articulating and sharing that knowledge in ways that are accessible and meaningful to diverse participants, including community housing providers, on whom much of the responsibility for innovation and sustainability in the sector rests.

The principal aim of this project is to build new and innovative partnerships to address a series of identified challenges for northern regions and communities working to alleviate homelessness and housing insecurity. The project is divided into six thematic focus areas, which were identified as priority areas by communities: supportive housing models, governance, northern housing design, programs and services, health, and metrics.

This project has three interrelated objectives:

1. Identify knowledge gaps on northern homelessness and housing insecurity;
2. Mobilize knowledge on northern homelessness and housing insecurity; and
3. Identify opportunities for adapting housing and housing-related social service policies, programs and models for northern contexts.

For communities across the Canadian North, housing insecurity is an undeniable public policy priority and human rights issue. Communities report increasing social concerns resulting from the lack of quality housing and the rise of northerners experiencing hidden and/or visible forms of homelessness. Local governments and non-governmental organizations are actively involved in collaborative efforts to understand the contributing factors to homelessness, and work to provide necessary housing programs and services. Despite these efforts, research engagements with northern and Indigenous communities reveal deepening frustrations over a lack of funding, the limited housing and social services spectrum in northern communities, and the challenges of implementing southern policy and programs in northern contexts. These frustrations are compounded by a sense of isolation from territorial/provincial/federal governments as well as from other northern communities, and difficulties in connecting community- and university-led research with meaningful policy and programs.

How do programs designed to make housing more affordable make a difference in the lives of the low-income Canadians who participate in them? We bring together a team of nationally- and internationally-recognized researchers from disciplines including housing studies, gender studies, sociology, social policy, community health and epidemiology, and community economic development, as well as community organizations involved in housing and poverty reduction, and two municipalities.

The context of our study is this: currently, a range of programs help low-income Canadians with housing affordability, and many of these will be strengthened through the National Housing Strategy. These programs include rent-geared-to-income (RGI) stock (such as public housing) and rent supplements (which are provided directly to landlords to help bridge the gap between 30% of income and shelter costs). Housing allowances are a third example, which are similar to supplements, although financial assistance is provided directly to tenants so they can live in market or community housing.

The Balanced Supply of Housing research partnership

Examining Canadian housing policies and programs to create a balanced supply of housing

Canada has a housing crisis. This is especially true in major urban centres, with growing homelessness and significant mismatches between housing costs and average incomes.

The Balanced Supply of Housing (BSH) is a collaborative network of academic researchers and community partners that conduct rigorous community-based research and data analysis to foster a just and equitable housing system through knowledge generation and mobilization. Our goal is to inform policy and systemic changes to address socio-economic and racial inequalities so that the right to housing is realized and everyone is housed well. 

3 Key Goals

• • ✔Examine the concept of a balanced supply of housing through housing policies and programs.
  • ✔Investigate policy levers and incentives that allow for a more equitable distribution of housing resources.
  • ✔Produce research that can easily be communicated to a wide range of audiences to inform effective housing policies.

Project scope and expected outcomes

Four overarching questions

The Balanced Supply of Housing program focuses on British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, particularly the urban regions of Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal which collectively house one third of Canada’s population. These locations offer enough difference and common ground for comparative studies into what shapes housing supply and possible adaptations and innovations.

The program builds on four overarching questions:

• What data is needed to assess a balanced supply of housing system in Canada?
• How can new tenures (such as rental, ownership, co-op, social and Indigenous-led)improve the balance of housing?
• How do current balances and imbalances in housing markets affect population health, engagement, and economic stability for priority populations, including unhoused people? 
• How might policy and legal changes, including greater tenancy protections, improve outcomes?

Three interconnected sub-themes

Three interconnected sub-themes guide the research: 

• Reshaping the financialization of housing: research in this area explores the role of the financialization of housing in shaping eviction trends, and the relationship between security of tenure, gentrification, homelessness and wealth accumulation.

Innovating in responsive land-use practices: research in this area explores land use models that make space for community housing, with a focus on community land trusts (CLTs), and their role in protecting affordability. 

Designing sustainable housing futures: research in this area explores the intersection between land use and policy with a focus on building codes and public opinion and their role in creating opportunities for accessible and inclusive communities.  

The partnership is contributing to research that informs policies and laws with a focus on the right to housing, the equitable distribution of housing resources and building resilient and inclusive communities.

An intersectional lens

The Balanced Supply of Housing is composed of an interdisciplinary team of academics and community partners from diverse backgrounds. We use an intersectional lens when investigating both current housing challenges and potential solutions.

The program is designed to provide research that can be communicated easily to inform effective housing policies. This includes communicating analyses of unmet demand for housing, evaluating housing intervention plans and tracking positive housing outcomes. The partnership also provides recommendations for social, economic and health benefits for Canadians through access to secure, affordable housing. A knowledge mobilization strategy informs housing policy and public discourse.

Program: Collaborative Housing Research Network (CHRN)

Program Partner: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Research Team: Balanced Supply of Housing

Program Director: Alexandra Flynn, University of British Columbia

Location: University of British Columbia

Get More Information: Check the BSH website for more information.

Canada’s older homeless population is rising at alarming rates and remains largely invisible in research, policy, and practice domains. On the one hand, homelessness programming continues to target youth and chronic homelessness through rapid rehousing models. On the other hand, aging in place strategies are based largely on the assumption of stable housing. Consequently, few appropriate supportive housing options have been developed and evaluated for the diverse population of older people experiencing homelessness (OPEH). There is an urgent need to build capacity in order to develop additional supportive housing that meets the complex health and social needs of this growing population of OPEH across Canada.

To address these gaps, the aims of this project are to:

1. Develop a 3-City Promising Practice Supportive Housing Network comprised of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, housing, health, and social service providers, and older people with lived experiences of homelessness;
2. Identify Promising Practices for housing and shelter design, health, and social services, and income supports that promote aging in the right place;
3. Establish Identity Markers (gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, ability/disability) that affect OPEH’s ability to age in the right place;
4. Co-Create a comprehensive research proposal that identifies key case study sites to be evaluated in Phase 2 of the proposed Project by identifying promising practice models of housing and supports that could be scaled up in future research.

The developmental stage of this project will inform a more extensive, in-depth pan-Canadian program of research with the overarching objective of ensuring all Canadians, regardless of income, have the choice to age in the right place across the housing continuum, with dignity and respect.

Expected outcomes include an improved understanding or gaps in the housing sector for OPEH, knowledge sharing, opportunities to scale up successful housing models and fostering meaningful engagement amongst interdisciplinary stakeholders across Canada.