Expert Community on Housing (ECOH)

A diverse range of individuals with experience or interest in housing or related fields. The Community boasts a large range of diversity in areas such as:

• Subject matter expertise in over 100 areas
• Geographic regions of Canada and International
• Organization types
• Professions including students
• Types of lived experience

We welcome you to add your expertise and experience to the Community!

ECOH hosts a range of activities that can be described in 3 major groups:

1. Content sharing and networking through our Microsoft Teams forum.
2. Connecting and collaborating with others to offer your expertise or finding people with a particular set of expertise to advance housing-related work.
3. Working with dedicated teams on particular housing-related activities.

Members are free to participate in discussions on the forum, watch webinars presented by our members and learn more about housing and innovative practices. The forum is also your opportunity to directly connect with CMHC’s people and programs.

You may also be called upon to provide your input to help inform decision-making. This will be on a variety of topics, including the National Housing Strategy key priority areas. Discussions and work generated through ECOH may be featured in CMHC publications and events.

Check out what goes on in the Expert Community on Housing platform that you might be missing out on.

Webinars Series
Each month the community organizes or participates in events to connect its members, promote collaboration and share new solutions.
Learn more about this initiative.

College of Reviewers
ECOH supports CMHC initiatives like the College of Reviewers, a group of experts that helps CMHC assess applications under the NHS. More than 300 stakeholders from the housing sector are involved in the different spheres of ECOH by offering their time and expertise.
Learn more about this initiative.

Task Teams
ECOH task teams are specific teams that are dedicated to discussing and exploring specific subject areas. We have a number of task teams running and here are a couple of examples:

• Innovation Space - this task team is dedicated to Innovation in Housing. It is a space where you can learn more about our Demonstrations and Solutions Labs programs and results. The Innovation Space is an example of a public task team which is accessible to all members and it is highly discussion based.
• Expert Panel on the Future Supply of Housing - this task team was an example of private team that uses the platform for document sharing and consultations. The group focused on exploring ways to increase housing supply and how to enable more people to enter the housing market.
• You may or may not be invited to join a private task team but once an ECOH member, keep an eye out for any calls for expertise.

On-going discussions
Members are welcome to post articles of interest on the ECOH forum and initiate discussions. In addition to this, we also feature a monthly Ask an Expert series where we profile one of our community members and ask them questions about their work and experience.

General inquiries about ECOH or the National Housing Strategy:

• Phone: 1-800-668-2642 (Business hours : 7:30 am to 7:30 pm Eastern Time)
• Email: innovation-research@cmhc-schl.gc.ca