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Houses and Communities: Learning from a Case Study of Co-operative Assisted Home Ownership in Saskatchewan

Last Updated on April 15th, 2010
 

Project Title: Houses and Communities: Learning from a Case Study of Co-operative Assisted Home Ownership in Saskatchewan

Project Number: CL5-14-SK

Term of Project: September 2008 to June 2009

Status: In progress

Academic Researchers:

Student Researcher:

Community Researcher:

Community Partners:

Project Summary:

Saskatchewan has spawned significant organizational and program innovations designed to help low-income households to meet their needs for housing. Assisting home ownership via a multi-household co-operative model is one such initiative. Formalized in 1996 as the Neighbourhood Home Ownership Program (NHOP), this framework was intended to allow low-income households that had relied on rental housing to successfully achieve home ownership. As vehicles for self-help and social learning, these housing co-ops were also seen as tools to promote the wellbeing of inner-city communities. The proposed case study of assisted home ownership (in Saskatoon and, by extension, in other locales) is designed to reveal strengths and limitations of such models, and factors that promote or restrict success. The study goes beyond the systematic documentation of a particular housing initiative. Drawing on other examples and employing methodologies designed to reveal neighbourhood as well as household impacts, it considers the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of such programs in meeting housing needs and in supporting other dimensions of inner-city renewal. It also considers broader lessons for program design where the goal is to promote home ownership options for low- and moderate-income households.

The project is designed as collaborative, action- and policy-oriented research. It is also designed to contribute to scholarship on affordable housing with findings published in academic as well more popular venues. The research team will systematically examine outcomes and current challenges, and identify potentially viable responses. The specific research modalities include:

1.    A targeted review of relevant documents including outcome-tracking data and recent literature on affordable home ownership and community development;
2.    Key informant interviews and focus groups with program participants and organizational partners to document household and community outcomes, as well as lessons learned about assisted home ownership and community development;
3.    Analysis of housing market and related trends, including housing prices, construction costs, mortgage rates and income data.
4.    A stakeholder workshop to review preliminary research findings, and to consider implications for affordable housing programs, assisted home ownership, and community development efforts in Saskatchewan.

Specific Project-Level Research Objectives:

Expected Deliverables:

  1. Report
  2. Presentations
  3. Journal Articles

Findings:

Project Poster:

Final Report:

Projected Expenditures: $11,200 (internship)

In-Kind Contributions:

Publicity:

Dissemination Activities:

Additional Notes: