Halal Housing Lab Supporting Marginalized Communities

In Canada, there is significant demand for affordable housing and support services specific to larger, multi-generational families, racialized individuals, newcomers and women fleeing violence. These groups are often unable to enter the housing market because of financing requirements.

To support these groups, the Halal Housing Solutions Lab intends to create new funding avenues through community-based giving that can work with equity-seeking communities and CMHC. These funding streams will support unique financing options that enable people who need affordable housing to transition to and access Canada’s housing market.

Project scope and expected outcomes

Social and economic inclusion for community integration

The wait time for homes that support large, multi-generational families in Edmonton is 4 or more years and finding specialized housing for low-income racialized groups is often challenging. These groups face barriers to social inclusion which are made worse by targeted hate crimes and gaps in understanding from existing community organizations that do not speak the language or share a cultural background.

The Halal Housing Solutions Lab will support large, multi-generational families and racialized low-income households to find affordable housing solutions that align with their cultural values and needs. The Lab expects that community-driven affordable housing will enable people in these groups to thrive in their community. The Lab anticipates being able to provide individuals and their families with core housing. This will be done by:

• offering culturally relevant housing services
• developing financing options that are not interest-based providing culturally sensitive housing

The Lab will create an innovative approach to housing racialized groups in 5 phases:

1. The Definition Phase includes project planning, stakeholder mapping and qualitative research to inform key interviews. This phase refines the problem's focus and provides the scope for the remainder of the project.
2. The Discovery Phase includes research to understand the lived experiences of people who face housing insecurity and potential recipients of Halal Housing. This phase will establish the potential intervention points of the system that relates to this solution.
3. The Development Phase will create essential insights and see the development of ideas to address the challenges and realities of the current housing system and address the unique needs of Muslim families.
4. The Prototype and Test Phase evaluates and will build on the prototypes through workshops and in-depth testing of proposed solutions. This phase will assess the viability of positive progress in answering the challenges identified at the project onset.
5. The Roadmap Phase includes the creation of communications materials and a plan to implement Halal Housing. The roadmap phase will translate learnings and the Lab results for use. This phase will also scale and prepare partners to expand the solution in other Canadian communities.

Sharing findings, designs and the roadmap

A central part of the Lab is sharing the findings, design and roadmap with partners.

• The findings of this Lab will be shared on a project website. The website will tell the Lab’s story and act as the hub for future learnings.
• The Lab will share a monthly e-newsletter.
• It will create an opportunity report to illustrate the Lab’s concept.
• The project team will host a community workshop towards the end of the Lab.