Building a sustainable future for community housing in Canada

The National Housing Strategy identified community housing sustainability as a priority area for action, as part of a broader commitment to prioritizing the housing needs of the most vulnerable Canadians. The community housing sector in Canada is made up of 655,000 units, owned by provincial and municipal governments, non-profit organizations and housing cooperatives. While making up only 3.5% of Canada’s total housing stock, it plays a vital role in meeting the housing needs of low- and moderate-income households by providing affordable rents. Our research partnership works with and for the community housing sector to create and mobilize knowledge that contributes to increasing its capacity and sustainability. We do so, in part, because community housing is critical to achieving Canada’s goal of progressive realization of the human right to adequate housing.

Project scope and expected outcomes

A pathway to housing

Many Canadian households on low- and moderate-incomes face challenges seeking to access safe, secure and affordable housing. Homeownership is often priced out of their reach, and private rentals can consume a large portion of their incomes. Up to one-third of all rental households in Canada spend more than 30% of their incomes on shelter costs, and therefore experience unaffordability. In many larger urban centres, there may be little or no rental housing that households on low incomes can afford. In this challenging context, community housing is more essential than ever. There are now widespread calls for Canada to rapidly increase the supply of non-market housing – for example, by doubling it from 3.5% to 7% of the total housing stock.

Increasing the capacity and sustainability of the community housing sector 

Community Housing Canada is one of the 5 research partnerships that comprise the Collaborative Housing Research Network. We are working to ensure that community housing is centred in Canada’s quest to build more homes more quickly. We are doing so not only because of the vital role of community housing in addressing affordability, but also because of its capacity to address other essential components of housing adequacy – such as security of tenure, habitability and accessibility.

5 research clusters

The work of Community Housing Canada is organized into 5 research clusters, reflecting the diverse needs of the sector, and the work required to realize our goal of supporting its capacity and sustainability. One research cluster is a cross-cutting theme that provides an overarching and integrative focus on a central problem, while the others are areas of inquiry that focus on more specific goals.

Our 5 research clusters are:

1. Cross-cutting Theme: Identifying opportunities and barriers to increasing the supply of community housing and advocating for policies that support the sector to achieve this goal.
2. Area of Inquiry I: Enhancing the capacity of the community housing sector to address housing vulnerability.
3. Area of Inquiry II: Supporting energy innovations in community housing, at the building and neighbourhood scales.
4. Area of Inquiry III: Understanding the housing needs of priority populations and identifying ways for community housing to deepen social inclusion for these groups.
5. Area of Inquiry IV: Understanding the experiences of people working in and for community housing in Canada and using this expertise to strengthen the sector.

Building the foundations for an expanded and more sustainable community housing sector

Insights and findings from across Community Housing Canada’s research areas are shared across multiple formats, including products (such as papers and reports), events (like workshops and conferences) and networks (as in media outlets and the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative).