Lakehead University researchers helping to make housing more affordable across Canada

Ontario Construction News staff writer

A Lakehead University professor is co-leading two research teams receiving more than $1.3 million each from the Government of Canada, to improve the availability of affordable housing in Canada.

Dr. Rebecca Schiff, chair and professor in the department of health sciences, is co-leading At Home in the North: Partners in Housing and Home, as well as Community Housing Canada.

“For communities across the Canadian North, chronic housing insecurity is an undeniable public policy priority and human rights issue,” Dr. Schiff said. “Current strategies to address chronic housing need and homelessness tend to comprise policies and programs developed outside the North, and are thus disconnected from northern needs, realities, priorities and strengths.”

Working with communities across the provincial and territorial Norths to promote a housing continuum, the partnership project will study development and implementation of context-based, culturally safe programs, services and models for housing and homelessness, developed by and centred in northern communities, Dr. Schiff said.

The Community Housing Canada research will focus on households with low and modest incomes across Canada that struggle to access affordable, suitable, and adequate housing.

“Home ownership is often priced out of their reach and renting in the private market consumes a high proportion of their incomes,” Dr. Schiff said. “For these households, community housing offers a pathway to home; indeed, it has been characterized as ‘the backbone of Canada’s response to housing challenges.’”

The community housing sector in Canada includes more than 628,000 units, provided by over 3,000 public and non-profit organizations. Significant challenges include expiring operating agreements, aging housing stock, insufficient access to capital and limited capacity to increase supply, Dr. Schiff said.

Addressing housing needs will consider unique challenges in the North create policies and in collaboration with the people who live and work in the affected regions.

In 2020/21, Lakehead University received nearly $2 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, which includes costs for supporting the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, and research facilities.