Canadians have felt the impact of the housing crisis and innovative solutions are being highlighted from coast to coast. That’s the message Brian Doucet, Associate Professor of Planning at the University of Waterloo, emphasized on February 5th with those attending the screening of “Thinking Beyond The Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing” in the LA building of the University of Guelph, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development.

The film shows the Canadian housing crisis as being a result of compounding effects rather than isolated challenges. As decades of housing development have passed, the essence of affordable housing has been lost. Doucet delivers a comprehensive explanation of how housing has turned into something increasingly out of reach for Canadians.

The film offers insight into affordable housing solutions from across the country, from Vancouver and Whistler to the Greater Toronto Area, eastward to Montreal and Quebec City, and into Atlantic Canada. Doucet features initiatives showcasing the various pathways communities can use to support the development of affordable housing. Particularly, the use of non-market housing to guide communities to equitable support networks and safety-nets for stakeholders. The film exercises the obstacles associated with garnering support for such initiatives as being scalable, even for rural communities as seen in PEI. The film shows how local advocacy is shaping the way housing policy is written, points to the role non-profits have in generating support for community members, and the barriers to establishing affordable housing across different Canadian communities.

The Canadian housing crisis is nasty and difficult to navigate. Doucet clarifies the confusion and demonstrates innovative solutions, noting that without the support of federal, provincial and municipal leaders, more can be said in generating affordable housing. The film speaks to the complex systematic and structural challenges needed to address affordable housing, which must incorporate all levels of government, while co-constructed approaches that are place-based provided the complex context needed to address local concerns.

For more information, check out the film “Thinking Beyond The Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing” or HousingFilm.ca [1].

This article was written by Lucas Berek, Researcher at the University of Guelph in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development.