Damian Collins | University of Alberta

Dr Collins takes on this role in addition to his role as the partnership’s Director. He leads his team in researching the role community housing plays in helping Canadians realize their human right to housing. He draws on his considerable experience analyzing public policies and institutional practices from rights-based perspectives.

Jim Dunn | McMaster University

Dr Dunn is an expert in the relationship between neighbourhoods, housing and health. His work investigates the impact of housing and neighbourhood interventions on healthy child development.

Cynthia Puddu | MacEwan University

Using community-based participatory research methods, Dr Puddu works closely with homeless youth in Edmonton, sharing their stories of difficulty and success.

Rob Shields | University of Alberta

Dr Shields holds a Henry Marshall Tory Chair and is a leading theorist of the materialities and cultures of urban space. 

Katie MacDonald | Athabasca University

Dr MacDonald’s focus is interdisciplinary community-engaged research focused on learning in encounters with difference. In particular, she is interested in understandings of relational poverty and has looked at sites on the global and local scales.

Jacqueline Gahagan | Dalhousie University

Dr Gahagan specialises in evaluating policy interventions, with a focus on gender and LGBTQ issues, particularly concerning health-promotion.

Pablo Argibay Wikander | University of Alberta

My research focuses on the role of community housing in fulfilling the right to adequate housing for newcomers to Canada. The study is divided into three sections corresponding to Federal, Provincial-Municipal, and Neighbourhood scales to assess the housing regimes and Canadian refugee policy, housing and urban Imaginaries of refugees, and the right to housing and housing needs of refugees in Edmonton respectively.

My background is in Architecture and Urban Design, and I have previously worked with communities in Venezuela bringing ideas from the community into urban form. I hope to contribute to the project by understanding the imaginaries and housing needs of refugees in Edmonton to develop plans and designs that can fulfill the right to adequate community housing for refugees. Working with a multi-disciplinary team is an enriching and challenging experience at the same time. Therefore, I wish to contribute to the project from my perspective and learn from the experience of my colleagues.

Erika Cizek | University of Alberta

After completing my BA in Geography at Carleton University where I undertook an undergraduate thesis focusing on housing affordability in rural Ottawa, I am looking forward to further pursuing my interest in the growing need for affordable housing solutions in rural Canada. I spent much of my childhood and adolescence in the Kootenays, where I have seen many families and individuals forced to move elsewhere due to a lack of rental housing. Through my research, I hope to contribute to the housing debate in my community and help make it accessible to those who wish to build their lives in this stunning natural landscape.

Meagan Miller | University of Alberta

My research will centre on physical impairment/mobility limitation and community housing in Edmonton. Using a rights-based approach, I am interested in evaluating the accessibility of community housing and interpreting the degree to which it disables/enables people with physical impairments.

I completed my BA Honours at the University of Alberta in Spanish and Latin American Studies. After graduation, I worked as the News Coordinator for CJSR 88.5 FM, Edmonton’s volunteer-powered campus and community radio station. I hope my background in audio journalism can be used to share the work of this project with a wider audience and amplify the voices of disability communities living in these facilities.

Laura Bates | University of Alberta

My research uses a human rights framework to analyze the role of the community housing sector in realizing the right to housing. The study will also develop a rights-based tool in collaboration with the sector, to enable community housing providers to evaluate how existing and proposed initiatives can respect, protect and fulfil the right to housing.

I completed my undergraduate and Master’s degrees at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where I rapidly developed a passion for social science research. My previous research interests have been diverse, including recreational camping, youth disability, aging in place, island communities, and precarious housing. Since beginning my PhD at the University of Alberta in 2019, I have learned so much about social and non-market housing in the Canadian context, and about the challenges and priorities of the community housing sector. I feel privileged to be involved in this collaborative research team, and I am looking forward to assisting the sector in realizing the right to housing.

Kenna McDowell | University of Alberta

Kenna successfully defended her thesis in August 2022.

Kenna’s research focuses on the housing experiences of LGBTQ2 refugees in the Canadian social and affordable housing sector. Her research will adopt Intersectionality and homonationalism as theoretical frameworks to examine the extent to which the right to housing has been realized for LGBTQ2 refugees. This research aims to identify the ways in which law and policy can be altered or expanded to better suit the needs of LGBTQ2 refugees and help to realize the right to housing for all. 

My undergraduate degree in Women’s and Gender Studies taught me how structures like heterosexism, patriarchy, capitalism and white supremacy shape our world, including our housing systems. However, it also taught me that a different world is possible and that we can effectively resist the structures that marginalize us. I feel humbled to get to work towards the creation of this new world in a small way, and I hope that my research will contribute to creating a more equitable housing system in Alberta.

Isabella Grande | University of Alberta

It’s very exciting to have this opportunity to be a part of this project, especially as an undergraduate and to learn more about the housing trends in Canada. I’ve learned so much already and hope our research this summer on secondary suites can be a kick-start to a much bigger project.

Rebecca Bolen | University of Alberta

I am really excited to be in this project and to be learning more about emerging housing trends in Canada and especially about different forms of rental housing. I hope our research will provide new insights into the connection between secondary suites and community housing, as cities start to use both to address similar needs for affordable housing.