Research Areas
At the Housing Commons Research Centre, we look at how people can work together to make housing more affordable, fair, and community-led. Our research areas seek to bridge academic capacity with on-the-ground realities of alternative housing movements across the country. The HCRC highlights the practical tools and ideas, from policy and finance to land stewardship and community organizing, that help build lasting housing alternatives.
Our research priorities are:
Collaborative Planning in Community-Led Housing and Housing Commons
Exploring participatory approaches to design, planning, and decision-making that strengthen collective ownership and governance of housing.
Community Collaboration and Community Building
Building networks of trust, solidarity, and mutual aid that sustain long-term community-led housing initiatives.
Policy, Law & Governance
Examining the legal tools, governance models, and policy frameworks needed to enable and protect non-market housing alternatives.
Land Stewardship Practices
Investigating ways to hold and care for land in common, honour Indigenous sovereignty, and ensure housing remains affordable for generations.
Finance and Stewardship Strategies
Identifying ethical, sustainable, and community-driven financial models that resist extractive logics and support long-term housing security.
Housing Justice
Advancing housing as a human right through anti-racist, anti-colonial, and equity-centred practices of research and action.
Other NHA research clusters
Launched in 2024, the NHA partnership unites academic researchers, housing agencies, and community organizations to rethink Canada’s housing system and propose transformative alternatives. Its work is organized into four research clusters.
*The Housing Commons Research Centre (HCRC) is the practice-oriented output of the Alternative Housing Arrangements cluster. While grounded in this cluster’s focus on co-ops, land trusts, mutual aid, and other collective housing models, HCRC also collaborates across the other three clusters, serving as a bridge between research and practice by promoting and amplifying community-led solutions.