Affordable and Resilient Housing for New Immigrants

This Solutions Lab aims to identify characteristics of sustainable housing and communities from the perspective of newcomers and their building owners.

It will tackle common problems with affordable housing. An example of this is early building deterioration, which negatively affects buildings, living spaces and residents’ quality of life.

This Lab intends to create a program framework that can be used to improve the resilience of housing for newcomers.

Project scope and expected outcomes

The lab will be conducted in five phases.

1. First, the Lab team will define the problem using a literature review. They’ll study elements related to durable materials and indoor environmental quality. They’ll also examine the realities facing newcomers (overcrowding, low income, and lack of knowledge of the Canadian housing system).
   
   The team will identify key people involved in newcomer housing, including government agencies, and tenant and landlord representatives. They’ll also form a central advisory committee.
2. A discovery workshop will allow the key stakeholders identified to explore the issues and suggest solutions.
3. The team will develop a program framework based on the results of the discovery workshop. This framework will include the identification of existing analytics tools, operations manuals, materials lists, etc. Then, they’ll conduct a financial analysis comparing the long-term costs of the status quo with more sustainable choices.
4. The next step will be to test the framework in real situations and document the results. A second workshop, the Optimization workshop, will help refine the framework.
5. The team will then produce a roadmap that includes results from the workshop. It’ll also contain updates of all tools and financial analyses conducted during the Lab. After, they’ll hold a conference to raise awareness of these new tools and encourage broader adoption of the new practices.