CANADA MORTGAGE AND HOUSING CORPORATION
Research partnership grants to assess longitudinal housing outcomes

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) announced new Partnership Grants for National Housing Strategy Longitudinal Outcomes Research to examine key issues affecting outcomes of investments in affordable housing. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) will administer the grant and work with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council to attract researchers of the highest caliber.

The Partnership Grants will provide $410,000 for the first year and up to $1.1 million for the following five years, up to a total of $4.8 million. Funding will be split between two research teams. The grants were established to attract large, multi-disciplinary research teams of life scientists, social scientists, engineers, and environmental scientists to work collaboratively. They will examine the long-term health, socio-economic, and climate change outcomes of investments in affordable housing, and the links between housing, health, socio-economic, and environmental factors at the household and community levels.

The National Housing Strategy (NHS) is a 10-year, $72+ billion plan focused on improving housing affordability in Canada and giving more people in Canada a place to call home. It recognizes the importance of housing in achieving better socio-economic and health outcomes and contributing to a stronger economy and a cleaner environment. Research under the new partnerships grant will support future decision-making related to delivery of affordable housing programs and the built environment. It will look at outcomes related to NHS and other affordable housing investments on the lives of Canadians and the environment in which they live, primarily:

• Health, including mental wellbeing and physical health;
• The social outcomes of housing investments on populations in housing precarity, and the links to justice system, with household stability, safety and security, displacement, and social inclusion;
• Economic outcomes related to employment and income; and,
• Better built environments, and the influence on climate change and energy poverty impacts, community resilience of the housing sector, and the related impacts on populations experiencing vulnerability.

Applications for the CMHC grant must be submitted via the SSHRC website no later than November 22, 2022. Successful candidates will be announced in March 2023.

Quotes:

"While the NHS will increase the supply of affordable housing units in Canada, we need also research to understand how the provision of this housing impacts the lives of Canadians over the longer term. This work will provide foundational evidence for the development of informed housing policies and programs."

Nadine Leblanc, Senior Vice-President of Policy for CMHC

"Affordable housing is an issue of increasing national importance. SSHRC welcomes the significant investment by CMHC to help better meet Canadians' future needs by supporting multi-disciplinary research on longitudinal housing outcomes. We look forward to working with CMHC and the tri-agency to administer this important and timely competition."

Dr. Ted Hewitt, President of SSHRC

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.