Community-University Institute for Social Research

CUISR is pleased to announce the award of a 3-year SSHRC-CMHC Renewal Partnership Grant, March 2025 to March 31, 2028, on People, Places, Policies and Prospects: Affordable Rental Housing for Those in Greatest Need.  The Renewal Award worth $899,470.35 involves three regions--Atlantic Canada (Cape Breton Regional Municipality; Principal Investigator Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid, Cape Breton University), Central Canada (Ottawa), and the Prairies (Saskatoon) in  one of the research nodes within the Collaborative Housing Research Network (CHRN), an independent, Canada-wide collaboration of academics and community partners focused on multi-disciplinary research on housing conditions, needs and outcomes in support of the priority areas of the National Housing Strategy. The CHRN, a joint initiative between CMHC and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).  provides objective, recognized and high-quality research that can support housing policy decisions and inform future program development. 

Expanding on the extensive research we have conducted in our first five years, our team will pursue seven projects with a national or multi-national scope during the renewal period. Five of these will use Canadian Housing Survey (CHS) data, including to understand the experiences of Indigenous renters, to examine housing quality and stability by rental housing type, to explore structural determinants of health and housing, and to build a comprehensive profile that describes the housing outcomes/experiences of young renters across Canada. In keeping with the NHS’s GBA+ lens, we will also conduct research on feminist housing commons, drawing out both theoretical and practical implications as co-operatives and other collective forms of housing become increasingly relevant in the context of the NHS. Finally, several cross-regional and regional initiatives will focus on research gaps and solutions, incorporating unique goals of our community partners. These include conducting applied research on the application of international housing policies in the Canadian context and understanding different rental housing options for people with disabilities.

• Advocating for Housing Rights: A Guide and Toolkit
• 2024 Saskatoon Point-In-Time Homelessness Count - Highlights and Key Findings
• 2024 Saskatoon Point-in-Time Homelessness Count - Niloofar Nili, Isobel M. Findlay, and Rosmary Martinez Rueda
• Housing Security and Neighbourhood Safety Pathways to Equity Workshop Report - Nadia Sedaghat, Isobel M. Findlay, and Rosmary Martinez Rueda
• Housing Insecurity, Renter Equity, and Homelessness in Saskatchewan Workshop Summary Report - Natalie Tai and Keith Da Silva
• Financialization of Housing in Canada: A Case Study of the Eviction Practices of Epic Alliance Properties - Sarah Buhler and Kenechukwu Aneke
• Manor Transition Initiative: Outcomes and Evaluation Year One - Shirmin Bintay Kader, Alexis Cook, and Isobel M. Findlay