Our Team
Co-Leads:
Dr. Susannah Bunce
Nat Pace
Research Associate:
Sam Carter-Shamai
Steering Committee:
Zack Bradley
Dr. Thomas Moore
Victor Willis
About Dr. Susannah Bunce
Susannah Bunce is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She is the Co-Lead of the Housing Commons Research Centre and Co-Director of the New Housing Alternatives Partnership.
Susannah has been involved in community-engaged research for several decades and has collaborated with community partners in research and teaching practices. Her research centres on the geographies and planning of urban communities and neighbourhoods and strategies for socio-environmental justice at the urban neighbourhood scale. Susannah also focuses on insurgent responses and more hopeful, future-oriented community-engaged practices, particularly those related to affordable and equitable land stewardship (urban community land trusts and urban eco-villages). She is the author of a monograph on sustainability policy and planning (Routledge), a co-edited book on Toronto and London, UK (UCL Press), and has also published her research in numerous international urban studies and geography journals. Susannah is delighted to build upon her academic research experience and community engagement experience in the development of the HCRC and its activities.
About Nat Pace
Nat Pace is the Network Director of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts (CNCLT), supporting the movement through technical help, knowledge sharing, and advocacy.
Moonlighting as a stand-up comic, Nat brings the same creativity, timing, and storytelling to CNCLT—making the work accessible and keeping the movement energized. Past work with the Canadian Network of Elizabeth Fry Societies helped Nat develop an approach to housing justice grounded in abolitionist feminism and decolonization.
They hold a Master of Urban Planning from McGill University and a Bachelors of Arts, majoring in Geography and Cultural Studies, from Wilfrid Laurier University.
About Sam Carter-Shamai
Sam is an urban planner and cultural researcher with a decade of experience bridging development consulting, community organizing, and academic inquiry.
With a Master’s of Planning from Toronto Metropolitan University, Sam has recently worked as Manager of Planning for the Bentway Conservancy and as Chair of the Neighbourhood Land Trust. As the 2024 University of Toronto School of Cities Early Career Canadian Urban Leader and 2024/2025 CCAxMellon Multidisciplinary Research Fellow, his current research interests explore the intersections of cultural infrastructure, collective memory, and alternative land tenure models.
In addition to the typical tools of a land use and policy planner, Sam employs multimedia storytelling—film, photography, soundscapes, and print—to illuminate the role of social technologies in community-building and place-making. His practice engages diverse audiences, fostering dialogue across disciplines and geographies to imagine viable alternatives to extractive urban development practices.
The Steering Committee
The steering committee provides important perspectives between research clusters under the New Housing Alternatives broader umbrella. Communicating alignment with overarching objectives and priorities. The primary role of the HCRC Steering committee is to provide strategic oversight, guidance and feedback on the Centre’s key decisions/decision-making processes, while providing the co-leads, staff team, with guidance and support for the day-to-day operations at the HCRC.
About Zack Bradley
Zack Bradley is currently the Co-Director, Development at the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT). The KMCLT is a neighbourhood-led non-profit that acquires and stewards affordable housing and commercial spaces in Toronto’s Kensington Market. At the KMCLT, Zack leads property acquisition, financing, and long-term asset management for KMCLT’s portfolio of community-owned properties, which now includes 40 apartments and 17 commercial spaces. Zack co-manages KMCLT’s community bond campaigns, investor relations, and fundraising, helping raise millions of dollars towards property acquisitions in 2023-2025 and putting wealth back into the community.
Zack contributes to the national and international Community Land Trust movement as a member of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts (CNCLT) and currently is an advisory committee member to Brique par Brique’s community bond campaign in Montreal. Zack has a background in journalism and urban planning, and has previously worked for a private real estate developer, the TTC, and many other odd jobs. He is originally from Oshawa.
About Dr. Thomas Moore
Tom Moore is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool. Tom undertakes research and teaching in the areas of housing policy, community planning, and urban development. His work focuses on the ways in which people participate in and influence planning systems, and on the relationship between housing and social and spatial equity and justice. He has conducted research with community-led housing groups in the UK and internationally since 2008, exploring the networks and partnerships that communities used to mobilize and contest housing issues and land use.
About Victor Willis
Currently the lead staff with the Toronto (Mental Health & Addictions) Supportive Housing Network. The Executive Director of the Parkdale Activity – Recreation Centre from 1999 to 2025 with involvement in community and mental health initiatives that spans 40 years, from the 519 Church Street Community Centre to Trinity Square Cafe Enterprises, followed by ten years at the Gerstein Crisis Centre.
Having participated in many community development activities, including chairing the Community Fire Response Protocol that established a city-wide response for marginalized tenants of rooming houses.
In 2006, led a community-based response to a proposed redevelopment of a derelict rooming house adjacent to PARC, resulted in the unprecedented decision by City council to expropriate the property and redirect it into an RFP for affordable housing. After PARC’s successful bid, the PARC Ambassador project was established to engage businesses and neighbours in a dialogue about the proposed development, addressing opposition to the project in a variety of forums. These initiatives led to the development of 29 units of peer run supportive housing and Edmond Place opened its doors on January 4th, 2011 as of 2025 PARC has 151 units of affordable and supportive housing.
Victor was a founding member of the (Parkdale) Neighbourhood Land Trust. As well as the lead of the Parkdale People’s Economy.
In 1999-2000 Victor redeveloped the main building to be accessible with ten units of Supportive Housing. Over the next 25 years PARC added six buildings, was awarded a Rapid Housing Initiative building that is scheduled to open in September 2026.
Victor recently completed nine years as a trustee at CAMH, including Chair of the Clinical Quality and a member of the Property Committee. He was a board member of Daily Bread Food Bank, chair of the Program Support Committee and a founding member of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust.
Victor was also a member of the provincial Mental Health & Addictions Leadership Council from 2014-2017 – a three-year appointment providing the Minister of Health with a refreshed mental health strategy. Victor’s knowledge of mental health and addiction issues is rooted in both his professional as well as personal and family experiences.