About

People, Places, Policies and Prospects is a nation-wide research collaborative that began in 2020 and investigates affordable rental housing for those in greatest need. We are a unique academic and community partnership that involves dozens of researchers and staff from various universities and organizations across Canada and USA. Our team makes up one node of Canada’s Collaborative Housing Research Network (CHRN) through CMHC.

The specific question that drives our research is this: How do different types of affordable rental housing affect the most vulnerable Canadians? There are different ways that governments and communities across Canada provide affordable rental housing, however, there is little evidence as to which of these ways provide the best outcomes for tenants. Our research aims to develop a better understanding of which supports, if any, provide the best tenant outcomes.

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 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.

We assess five priority topics:

housing stability
health and well-being
neighborhood opportunities
housing satisfaction and condition
and economic hardship.

Our research and data collection takes place in three locations across Canada: in the Atlantic, Central, and Prairie regions. We also leverage data collected at the national level by Statistics Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). We also have a Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) team that researches feminist housing and ensures a GBA+ lens is implemented into all of our projects across our regions.

Atlantic Region (Sydney, NS)

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) in the Atlantic Region features a high prevalence of core housing need among non-senior adults. Interview-based data collection is conducted in collaboration with local community partners. We have created a shared interview guide to ensure research can be synthesized nationally and keep with the GBA+ lens that is integral to our research. The aim of our research is to document affordable housing ‘stories’ that highlight the importance of affordable housing and how it contributes to community wellbeing. Research projects take place in each of two distinct Mi’kmaw communities, Membertou and Eskasoni, as well as in Sydney and surrounding areas. An additional dataset will be analyzed using Canadian Housing Survey results published by Statistics Canada. Cape Breton University is the headquarters of our project grant and home of our Community-University Housing Research Lab.

Central Region (Ottawa, ON)

A significant population of youth experience homelessness in this city. Using a participatory and community-based model with trained youth co-researchers, team members will conduct a longitudinal, mixed methods study of the outcomes and experiences of 80 to 100 young people (ages 16 to 29) living in different types of affordable housing in this city. This project has a specific focus on autonomous youth who have left homelessness or precarious housing situations. This project includes transitional housing as it is a common form of short-term housing for youth leaving homelessness, lasting up to two years. It also includes a social housing project specifically geared towards LGBTQ2S+ youth.

Prairie Region (Saskatoon, SK)

Saskatoon features unique provincial and municipal programs to provide affordable rental housing for those in greatest need, and has a high prevalence of Indigenous people experiencing homelessness. Projects conducted in this region assess tenant outcomes and experiences among those living in affordable units provided through Saskatchewan Housing Corporation’s Rental Development Program. Specifically, that project will compare the experiences and outcomes of tenants living in subsidized, non-profit housing versus market rentals. We will also examine how rental providers respond to the needs of urban Indigenous tenants. Additional projects will involve taking a housing systems analysis approach to examine how well and under what circumstances rental housing providers work together and with other social service providers, when housing those in greatest need.