CMHC Housing Research Awards

Awards for innovative and impactful Canadian housing research, training knowledge mobilization and outreach.

Meet the 2022 award winners

The CMHC Housing Research Awards support research teams and recognize activities that are impactful and innovative in Canadian housing including:

housing research
research training
knowledge mobilization and outreach

The awards are designed to build on and sustain Canada’s research-based knowledge culture across all fields related to housing.

You can be awarded up to $20,000 and recognized for your work you’ve put into fields related to housing in Canada. Your research can be in the social sciences and humanities, health and technology — the caveat is that your research must tie back to housing across Canada.

Choose the award that will compliment your research:

CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research (Theme: Housing and Climate Change) ($20,000)
Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence ($10,000)
Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action ($10,000)
North Star Award for Northern or Remote Research (2 or more up to $5,000)

The Housing Research Awards in action: Find out how researchers in Toronto received $10,000 from the CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence for their critical research into youth homelessness. Find other similar success stories here.

Am I eligible to apply?

Learn more about past award winners

2022 award recipients

2022 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
Climate change and housing loss: Investigating residential displacement, housing damage and associated vulnerabilities from the 2018 and 2019 flooding of the Wolastoq in New Brunswick
2022 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Making Permanent Supportive Housing Work for Vulnerable Populations: Increasing uptake and prioritizing the voices of people with lived experience in knowledge translation and exchange.

Previous award recipients

2021 award recipients

2021 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
Improving housing stability among Indigenous residents at Horizon Housing: Shedding light on what might reduce the rate of negative exits among Indigenous residents at Horizon Housing.
2021 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Who Does the Welfare State Support, and How? Housing for Moderate-Income Households in Three Canadian Provinces, 1975–2015: Closer Targeting of Vulnerable Citizens.
2021 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Skookum Housing Solutions: Innovative Indigenous Research in Surrey, BC: Taking a look at the rapidly changing urban Indigenous population in Surrey to address systemic housing inequalities.
2021 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
K’asho Got’ı̨nę House Assessment Research Project: Exploring the conditions of privately-owned homes in Fort Good Hope as well as the impact of repair and maintenance.

2020 award recipients

2020 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
The Impact of Short-term Rentals on Canadian Housing Using data collection and analysis to investigate the effects of short-term rentals in Canada
2020 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Step-by-Step Guide to Developing Affordable Housing A clear and easy-to-follow guide from the Alberta Rural Development Network
2020 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
Step-by-Step Guide to Estimating Rural Homelessness Collecting data on homelessness and housing insecurity in rural and remote Canadian communities
2020 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
Community Benefits of Supportive Housing A tool to address community questions about supportive housing for people experiencing homeslessness.

2019 award recipients

2019 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Eliminating LGBTQ2S youth and young adult homelessness Understanding how Canada’s first LGBTQ2S transitional housing program Impacts outcomes for youth
2019 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Metro Vancouver Transit‐Oriented Affordable Housing Study Studying the challenges and opportunities of developing affordable rental housing close to transit.
2019 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
Innovative solutions to affordable housing challenges Partnerships for Affordable Housing: Policy, Planning and Community Building.

2018 award recipients

2018 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
SEKUWE (My House), Dene First Nation Views on Healthy Homes Using a ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach for housing and health creates culturally appropriate housing.
2018 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
Understanding Rental Housing in a Smaller Community Understand how poverty, abuse and addiction were identified as the main causes of homelessness.