Expert Community on Housing (ECOH)

The Expert Community on Housing welcomes a diverse range of people who have experience or interest in housing or related fields. With over 900 members across Canada, 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 three major groups:

1. Content sharing and networking through our MS Teams forum.
2. Connecting with others to offer your expertise or finding people with particular 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, view 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.

You can join us by filling in this short registration form and submitting it.

The form will ask you about your experience and also ask you to agree to a set of Terms and Conditions so that you can access the ECOH forum on MS Teams. Your agreement will also us to contact you to propose collaboration opportunities as they come up.

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

Latest 2020 webinars (Video recordings can be accessed on the MS Teams forum)

• November: Spurring an Innovative Housing Ecosystem for Canada, Mark Schacter
• November: Launch of the Housing Supply Challenge – Round 1, presented by Sarah Button
• October: Student Housing in Canada: Issues and Solutions, presented by Laurent Levesque
• September: Tower Renewal and Conducting Retrofits in Occupied Apartments, presented by Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto.
• August: Transforming Emergency Shelter Spaces to Permanent Supportive Housing – New Opportunities During COVID-19, presented by Dr. Abe Oudshoorn.
• July: Micro-housing barriers, issues and Opportunities to Promote Housing Affordability in Canadian Cities, presented by Erik Janssen, Gil Amdurski, Arlene Etchen and Jamie Shipley

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 is an example of private team that uses the platform for document sharing and consultations. The group is 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.

College of Reviewers

ECOH supports CMHC initiatives like the College of Reviewers, a group of experts that helps CMHC assess applications under the NHS. This year over 40 experts have provided their time and 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