About the Project
Canada is facing related housing affordability and homelessness crises. Having created the crises through the cessation of new social housing development in the 1980s, more recently through the National Housing Strategy there is a renewed focus on increasing affordable housing stock. While affordability is a key factor, it isn’t the only one. For many exiting homelessness or leaving other public services (hospital, incarceration, child welfare) supports are required to sustain successful tenancies.
Unfortunately, while dedicated streams exist for new affordable housing, to attach supports to this housing is far less straight-forward. Instead, an over-stretched mish-mash of health and social services are leveraged to either provide supports outside the home environment, or more rarely within the housing environment. Because of this, exits into successful housing for Canada’s most vulnerable persons remain a significant challenge.
The idea of the need for supports in-home is not novel. Indeed, this is a core element of successful Housing First and mental health services over the last several years (for Housing First) and decades (for mental health care). However, beyond metrics of how supports improve health and social outcomes, several questions guiding this research remain:
- How are organizations making supportive housing work when dedicated funding streams for this model are absent?
- What do in-home supports mean for those exiting homelessness and living in supportive facilities?
- How do supportive housing services fit within the broader network of services?
- How do supportive housing buildings and their residents integrate (or not) in their local community.
Funding
This study/research was led by Dr. Abe Oudshoorn and received funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) under the National Housing Strategy (NHS). The views, analysis, interpretations, and recommendations expressed in this study are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of CMHC. CMHC’s financial contribution to this report does not constitute and endorsement of its contents.
La présente étude/recherche a été menée par Dr. Abe Oudshoorn et a reçu du financement de la Société canadienne d’hypothèques et de logement (SCHL) dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale sur le logement (SNL). Les opinions, analyses, interprétations et recommandations présentées dans cette étude sont celles des auteur(es) et ne reflètent pas nécessairement le point de vue de la SCHL. La contribution financière de la SCHL à la publication de ce rapport ne constitue nullement une approbation de son contenu.
Research Team
Steven Rolfe
Carrie Anne Marshall
Miranda Crockett
Susana Caxaj
Natasha Thuemler
Jason Gilliland
Sarah McLean
Vanisa Ezukuse
Amy Van Berkum
Olayinka Ariba
Deanna Befus
The Partnership
This project represents a partnership between the housing provider, Indwell, and researchers from the Centre for Research in Health Equity and Social Inclusion (CRHESI) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University. Indwell represents a ‘positive deviant’ in the supportive housing space. That is, they are making new supportive housing happen in a funding environment where this is particularly rare. This partnership allows for the research team to look beneath the service to understand both how these services are being delivered as well as their impact at the individual, service sector, and community level.
Findings
The project is being delivered in 3 phases. The first phase, completed through mid-2020 to May 2021 was to understand the experiences of tenants in accessing supportive housing through Indwell’s Woodfield Gate site in London, Ontario. Interviews with 20 tenants were analyzed to understand what is making supportive housing work, or not, for them? We also used the opportunity to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting tenants.
- Available and timely supports;
- Affordability; and
- Community, but with independence as desired
In spite of these benefits, residents at indwell also faced some struggles. Challenges faced by residents relate to: 1) a lack of conflict resolution skills, 2) residual effects of institutionalization coupled with the inability of staff to be readily available for less urgent issues, and 3) rent-that while subsidized- still consumes more than 50% of income. The pandemic served as a sort of “pressure cooker”, accentuating each of these challenges.
Further description of the findings can be found in the Phase 1 report available here.
A presentation of preliminary phase 1 findings is available here.
A video presentation of phase 1 findings can be found here.
Phase 2 of this project explored how supportive housing service integrates in the broader community, and how residents experience supportive housing and integrate in the community. You can learn about this work and access their stories in this report.
Below features highlights of the video narratives from some of our participants:
Throughout the process of this research it was noted that Indwell is working against the structural limitations currently in place and making supportive housing happen with on-site supports. That is, while there are fairly clear pathways in place for building new housing structures as a non-profit housing provider (ex. NHS, federal-provincial housing strategies, municipal/regional development corporations), there is no simple pathway available to guide providers who want to include on-site supports in their housing. This has created a context in which the majority of new affordable housing developed in Canada does not guarantee support for those who are most vulnerable, and providers need to seek outside services to bring in supports.
Knowledge Translation
If you are interested in providing supportive housing, we have developed a practice guide based on what we have learned in this project. Click here to access this guide. You can view a webinar presentation of this guide here.