Research Description

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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. 

 

For problems or questions regarding this web or the research project contact  [Converting Public Housing to Co-operative Housing].  Last updated: February 09, 2004.