CHRN Thematic Research Teams
Community Housing Canada
at home in the north
people, places, policies, prospects
Balanced Supply of Housing
Aging in the Right Place

Community Housing Canada
Building a Resilient Community Housing Sector in Canada
Principal Investigator.
Dr. Damian Collins, University of Alberta
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:
- To develop consensus on substantive definitions of ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ as they apply to community housing;
- To identify ways for providers to improve their resilience and sustainability, and measure their impacts of their initiatives;
- To conceptualize how the National Housing Strategy will shape the sector;
- 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.

At Home in the North
New Partners in Northern Housing and Homes
Principal Investigator
Dr. Julia Christensen, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
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:
- Identify knowledge gaps on northern homelessness and housing insecurity;
- Mobilize knowledge on northern homelessness and housing insecurity; and
- 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.
The realization of the aim and objectives of this project necessitates interdisciplinary involvement from a range of researchers and practitioners working in direct, sustained collaboration with northern and Indigenous communities. The core partnership formed through this project is comprised of community- and university-based researchers and collaborators from non-governmental organizations, Indigenous governments and communities, municipal governments and provincial/territorial governments, and private sector stakeholders. Each project partner has experience leading innovative housing-relate research, participating in community-led research, and working with creative, community-based, and strengths-based research methods.
Outcomes of this partnership include both scholarly and societal outcomes, including: sharing and mobilization of knowledge from across a wide breadth of researcher and community experiences and disciplines; creation of new and enhanced research methodologies to identify opportunities for adapting housing policies, programs and models for northern contexts; contributing to the theoretical and practical understandings of homelessness and insecurity across the provincial and territorial norths; and, connecting disparate and isolated community and university-based research efforts to create a comprehensive and holistic way forward in culturally-relevant responses to housing insecurity.



People, Places, Policies, Prospects
Principal Investigator
Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid, Cape Breton University
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.
In the National Housing Strategy, programs like these are stated to result in positive social and economic benefits (also called outcomes) for those who receive them. The problem, however, is that the benefits that tenants may, in fact, experience as a result of receiving such assistance have received little attention in Canada. In addition, we do not understand how different programs (e.g., RGI units, rent supplements, housing allowances) may result in distinctive outcomes. This is surprising, especially since policy development is increasingly based on evidence. It is precisely this gap our team intends to fill as one of the research nodes within the Collaborative Housing Research Network.


Balanced Supply of Housing
Principal Investigator
Alex Flynn, University of British Columbia
Housing for Canada’s population has reached crisis proportions in many parts of the country, especially in major urban centres, with rampant homelessness and significant mismatches between the cost of housing and average incomes. We will help reduce these problems by convening a critical mass of interdisciplinary academics and multi-sectoral partners from throughout Canada’s housing sectors. Our Node will produce cutting-edge research and mobilize knowledge to support policy decision-making at all levels of government, including for the NHS, thereby bridging gaps between research evidence and housing outcomes.
Our examination of the balanced supply of housing will be guided by four overarching questions. Does the housing system have:
- The right balance of housing tenures (i.e. rent, ownership, co-op, social, etc.)?
- The right balance of built form and location (i.e. sub/urban, apartment, townhome, detached)?
- The right balance of cost and type relative to local earnings (versus outside investment or short-term rental demand)?
- What evidence is there that any current (im)balances in housing markets affect population health, demographic engagement and/or economic stability?

Our Node will integrate theoretical frames from health, indigenous studies, economics, and community planning and root these frameworks in feminist gender and community-based research principles. We will rely on a combination of methods informed by our various disciplines, including quantitative and spatial data analysis, econometric modeling, health in all policies analysis, qualitative and ethnographic methods of participatory action and field work, along with innovative public participation and design research methods. Our research questions and team are designed to both generate and mobilize knowledge through community research co-creation. Our knowledge mobilization activities will be guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework, which has been implemented and refined by one of our lead community partners.
Our team will begin gaps analyses that explore the current housing supply — across tenure, built form, cost, and demand type — to assess current and future needs of res idents in major urban areas within BC, Ontario and Quebec, with the intention to extend to other provinces and smaller communities in subsequent years.
Our team will set up partnerships in the next year to explore land trusts or leases, purpose-built rental, more sustainable and appropriate secondary rental, co-ops, indigenous land tenure. social and supportive housing, public and non-profit housing, and community housing. We will begin to assemble an annotated database of policy options, which will be a living document that we update with future phases of the Node’s activity.
In light of rising prices in Canada’s most desirable cities, numerous policies have been enacted at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels to attack supply and demand forces deemed to cause high prices. Where feasible, we will assess the impacts of these policies by evaluating quasi-experiments and case studies stemming from policy changes that affect some but not all jurisdictions, or differences in policies/practices between like jurisdictions, so that we can deploy methods that isolate cause from correlation.
Central Coordinating Committee
Alex Flynn
Academic Co-chair
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Andrés Penaloza
Community Co-chair
B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association
Vancouver, BC
Knowledge Mobilization Committee
Julie Mah
Academic Co-chair
University of Toronto
Toronto, BC
Cheryll Case
Community Co-chair
CP Planning
Toronto, ON
Reshaping the Financialization of Housing Working Group
Alan Walks
Academic Co-chair
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON
Tom Davidoff
Academic Co-chair
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Victor Willis
Community Co-chair
Parkdale Activity – Recreation Centre
Toronto, ON
David Wachsmuth
Academic co-chair
McGill University
Montreal, QC
Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
Penny Gurstein
Academic Co-chair
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Nik Luka
Academic Co-chair
University of McGill
Montreal, QC
Nathan Lauster
Academic Co-chair
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Joshua Barndt
Community Co-chair
Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust
Toronto, ON
Adam Mongrain
Community Co-chair
Vivre en Ville
Montreal, QC
Organizations | Representative | Location |
---|---|---|
Aboriginal Housing Management Association | Nizar Laarif | West Vancouver, BC |
Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario | Magda Barrera | Toronto, ON |
Association for Generational Equity | Eric Swanson | Victoria, BC |
British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association | Brian Clifford | Vancouver, BC |
Evergreen | Isabel Cascante | Toronto, ON |
Kensington Market Community Land Trust | Kevin Barret | Toronto, ON |
Parkdale Activity – Recreation Centre (Toronto) | Victor Willis | Toronto, ON |
Réseau québécois des OSBL d’habitation | Jacques Beaudoin | Montreal, QC |
Ryerson City Building Institute | Claire Pfeiffer | Toronto, ON |
The Neighbourhood Land Trust | Joshua Barndt | Toronto, ON |
University of Waterloo | Ruth Knetchel | Waterloo, ON |
Wellesley Institute | Greg Suttor | Toronto, ON |
West Neighbourhood House | Lynne Woolcott | Toronto, ON |
Name | Organization | Co-Investigator |
---|---|---|
Alan Walks | University of Toronto | Yes |
Alex Schwartz | New School | No |
Alexandra Flynn | University of British Columbia | Yes |
Amy Khare | National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities | No |
Andy Yan | Simon Fraser University | No |
Erika Sagert | BC Non-Profit Housing Association | No |
Cherise Burda | Ryerson City Building Institute | No |
Cheryll Case | CP Planning | No |
Claire Pfeiffer | Ryerson City Building | No |
Cliff Grant | Aboriginal Housing Management Association | No |
Craig Jones | Housing Research Collaborative | No |
David Hulchanski | University of Toronto | No |
David Ley | University of British Columbia | No |
David Wachsmuth | McGill University | Yes |
Elvin Wyly | University of British Columbia | No |
Eric Swanson | GenSqueeze | No |
Isabel Cascante | Evergreen | No |
Jacques Beaudoin | Réseau Québécois des OSBL d’Habitation | No |
Jean-Philippe Meloche | University of Montreal | Yes |
Joshua Barndt | Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust | No |
Joshua Gordon | Simon Fraser University | No |
Kathleen Scanlon | London School of Economics | No |
Kevin Barrett | Kensington Market Community Land Trust | No |
Lu Han | University of Toronto | Yes |
Lynne Woolcott | West Neighbourhood House | No |
Magda Barrera | Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario | No |
Maged Senbel | University of British Columbia | No |
Marika Albert | BC Non-Profit Housing Association | No |
Mark Joseph | Case Western Reserve University | No |
Markus Moos | University of Waterloo | No |
Martine August | University of Waterloo | Yes |
Nathanael Lauster | University of British Columbia | Yes |
Nicole Gurran | University of Sydney | No |
Nik Luka | McGill University | Yes |
Paul Kershaw | University of British Columbia | Yes |
Penny Gurstein | Housing Research Collaborative | Yes |
Scott Leon | Wellesley Institute | No |
Sheryl Staub-French | University of British Columbia | No |
Susannah Bunce | University of Toronto | Yes |
Thomas Davidoff | University of British Columbia | Yes |
Victor Willis | Parkdale Activity – Recreation Centre | No |
Comparative Projects
Filling the Gaps in Housing: Tracking Legislative Responses to COVID-19 in Emergency Housing Initiatives
- Principal Investigator: Alex Flynn (UBC)
- Co-Investigators: Tom Davidoff (UBC), Penny Gurstein (UBC), Nik Luka (McGill), Alan Walks (U of T)
- Research Themes: Reshaping the Financialization of Housing / Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: August 2020
Do higher home prices hurt or help child vulnerability? A multi-level study of home prices, earnings and Early Development Instrument (EDI) data across Canadian regions and provinces.
- Principal Investigator: Paul Kershaw (UBC)
- Co-Investigator: Magdalena Janus (McMaster), Eric Duku (McMaster), Nazeem Muhajarine (U Sask), Marni Brownell (U Manitoba), Martin Guhn (UBC), Barry Forer (UBC)
- Research Theme: Reshaping the Financialization of Housing
- Funding Window: August 2020
Assessing the Impact of Short-term Rentals on Canada’s Housing Supply
- Principal Investigator: David Wachsmuth (McGill)
- Research Theme: Reshaping the Financialization of Housing
- Funding Window: August 2020
New Directions in Affordability-Focused Land Policy and Practice
- Principal Investigator: Penny Gurstein (UBC)
- Research Theme: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: August 2020
Indigenizing Supportive Housing: The Dual Model of Housing Care.
- Principal Investigator: Penny Gurstein (UBC)
- Co-Investigators: Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi (ACEH)
- Community Partner: Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness
- Research Themes: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: November 2020
Community-focused Projects
Partna Housing – Scattered Housing Trust Model Design
- Principal Investigator: Cheryll Case (CP Planning)
- Co-Investigators: Alan Walks (U of T), Susannah Bunce (U of T)
- Research Themes: Reshaping the Financialization of Housing
- Funding Window: August 2020
Expansion of Laneway Homes in Vancouver: household acceptance and builders’ choices
- Principal Investigator: Tom Davidoff (UBC)
- Co-Investigators: Tsur Somerville (UBC), Andrey Pavlov (SFU)
- Research Themes: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: August 2020
A Community Action Research Project on Tower Rentals in Parkdale
- Principal Investigator: Joshua Barndt (NLT)
- Co-Investigators: Martine August (Waterloo), Scott Leon (Wellesley Insitute)
- BSH Community Partners: The Neighbourhood Land Trust, Parkdale People’s Economy / PARC
- Research Themes: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: August 2020
Community Capacity Building in Community Land Trusts for Affordable Housing: An Action Research Study of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust, Toronto
- Principal Investigator: Susannah Bunce (U of T)
- BSH Community Partners: Dominique Russell and Kevin Barrett, Kensington Market Community Land Trust
- Research Themes: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: August 2020
Studying Montreal’s financialization of multi-family rental housing: Spatiality, local specificity and empirical methodology
- Principal Investigator: Cloe St-Hilarie (RCLALQ)
- Co-Investigators: David Wachsmuth (McGill)
- Community Partner: RCLALQ
- Research Themes: Reshaping the Financialization of Housing
- Funding Window: November 2020
Strategies for improving access to safe, clean, affordable housing during beyond COVID-19: A case study of Lachine
- Principal Investigator: Nik Luka (McGill)
- Co-Investigators: Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi (ACEH)
- Community Partner: Table habitation de Lachine
- Research Themes: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: November 2020
Urban Indigenous Housing in British Columbia: Municipal responses through housing policy and plans
- Principal Investigator: Margaret Low (UBC)
- Co-Investigators: Penny Gurstein (UBC)
- BSH Community Partners: Aboriginal Housing Management Association
- Research Themes: Innovating in Responsive Land Practices
- Funding Window: November 2020

Aging in the Right Place
Principal Investigator
Dr. Sarah Canham, Simon Fraser University
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:
- 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;
- Identify Promising Practices for housing and shelter design, health, and social services, and income supports that promote aging in the right place;
- Establish Identity Markers (gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, ability/disability) that affect OPEH’s ability to age in the right place;
- 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.