The overall purpose of this study is to analyze
the change in government policy regarding the state’s role in providing
low-income housing, and within that policy change, to study a leading edge
innovation in non-market housing. Non-market
housing is analogous to non-profit housing, and involves dwellings that
are built for use by its tenants and is not sold on the market for the
financial gain of the people entrusted to control it. In
Canada
, there are three general categories of non-market housing -- non-profit,
non-profit co-operative, and public housing or government-controlled.
This study focuses on the potential for converting housing
currently controlled by a level of government into tenant-managed
non-profit co-operatives.
Within this overall purpose, this study has four
specific objectives. First is
to develop a taxonomy that details, under the various models that are used
for delivering non-market housing, which stakeholders control particular
aspects of the service. Second
is to look at the impact of the changes in government policy in the 1990s
(the so-called neo-conservative agenda) upon the partnership between
government and non-profits, as it applies to non-market housing, and to
detail shifts in the services controlled by the various stakeholders.
Third is to look at the potential for transforming non-market
housing provided by government (public housing) into a partnership with
non-profits. This
transformation represents a major shift in policy for the administration of non-market
housing and a significant shift in the functions undertaken by the
principal stakeholders.
This
third objective will be achieved through an investigation of a leading
edge experiment of converting a public housing project in Toronto
(Alexandra Park) to a tenant-managed non-profit co-operative (Atkinson
Housing Co-operative). We are also
conducting a survey of tenant representatives of other public housing
associations in
Ontario
to determine in part their interest in a tenant-managed non-profit.
Fourth, in light of the neo-conservative agenda and particularly as
it relates to non-market housing, is to re-evaluate the partnership model
between non-profits and government using a stakeholder framework.