This web page is intended to help you find information on urban housing policy.   If you need help, please contact Nina Smart, Liaison Librarian, at 778.782.5043 (inaccessible due to library closure) (Monday to Thursday ) or nsmart@sfu.ca Additionally, assistance with data queries is available at  data-services@sfu.ca.

Government and association sites
 

Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM)
"a common voice for local government"
Start with their  Housing policy page for an overview of federal and provincial government initiatives - includes policy papers and resources

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
Canada's national housing agency, including:

• Affordable Housing Programs Across Canada 
• Social Housing Programs 

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCSP)
Think tank, with reports and studies such as: 

• Planning for a Build-Out of Affordable Rental Housing in Metro Vancouver (Dec 2019)
• Getting Serious About Affordable Housing: Towards a Plan for Metro Vancouver

Conference Board of Canada
their Metropolitan Research section has topics such as metropolitan housing starts by the month, quarterly metropolitan outlooks for major cities. Some reports require creating an account

Canadian Rental Housing Index
"compiled using data from the 2016 long-form census, obtained through a Statistics Canada custom data request"
Developed by the BC Non-Profit Housing Association and VanCity

Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
"largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada"
Their Homeless Hub includes Publications such as The State of Homelessness in Canada and a section on Policy Briefs 

MetroVancouver
"federation of 21 municipalities, one Electoral Area and one Treaty First Nation that collaboratively plans for and delivers regional-scale services"
Housing Plans and reports

Centre for Urban and Community Studies (University of Toronto)
Research Bulletins including Canada's Dual Housing Policy: Assisting Owners, Neglecting Renters
See also UofT's School of Cities

Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate (UBC)
Research (local and international) and News and Events (mostly local)

Statistics and microdata

Statistics

Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)
producing "accurate, up-to-date information and analysis on economic issues"
Housing Market Stats section includes Monthly Stats, national and regional statistics, and the National Price Map

Royal LePage Releases and Surveys
Includes the quarterly House Price Survey, regional market/city surveys

Statista 
A portal of downloadable statistics Sample Search: Vancouver housing
Examples: Residential Housing in Canada (Dossier) and
Rental vacancy rates in British Columbia from 2000 to 2018 (Graph based on CMHC information)

CHASS 
(Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences) Data Centre, University of Toronto
Census information

Bank of Canada
"Canada's central bank"
Real Estate Market (based on StatsCan and CMHC tables) and Historical Data

Statistics Canada Housing Statistics
including CMHC Housing Data Tables 
example: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, average rents for areas with a population of 10,000 and over (Table: 34-10-0133-01, formerly CANSIM 027-0040)

Canda Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
Including:

• Housing Statistics
• Housing in Canada Online (HiCO)
• CMHC Data Tables  such as Housing Market Indicators, Rental Market Data 

Homelessness 

2017 Homeless Count in Metro Vancouver (MetroVancouver)
2019 Homelessness Count: Preliminary findings (City of Vancouver)

Outside of Canada

International House Price Database 
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Data-Planet statistical datasets 
"public, private and commercial sources of standardized and structured statistical data"  many American resources - for instance Zillow Real Estate Metrics - but Canadian content being added constantly

Microdata

Two research data depositories available to the SFU community:

Abacus Dataverse Network 
"Web-based data exploration, direct data downloading service"

Nesstar 
Research data depositories available to the SFU community.

For Data and GIS questions send a message to data-services@sfu.ca.

Books, reports and government documents

Books

Still renovating : a history of Canadian social housing policy [online and print]
Houses and homes : housing for Canadians [print]
Canadian urban regions : trajectories of growth and change [print]
In defense of housing : the politics of crisis [print]
Building a co-operative community in public housing : the case of the Atkinson Housing Co-operative [print] Chapter 1 "Canadian Public Housing Policy and Programs"
Municipal-federal-provincial relations in Canada [print]
Gentrification [print and online]

Other recommended titles:

Neoliberal housing policy : an international perspective [print]
Remaking housing policy : an international study [print]
The Routledge handbook of housing policy and planning 

You can find more monographs in the Catalogue under Subjects such as:

Housing policy -- Canada
Housing policy -- British Columbia -- Vancouver
Housing policy -- Canada -- History 
Housing -- Canada
Homelessness -- Canada
Gentrification 

Government and think tank reports

Canadian Electronic Library from desLibris 
full-text government and think tank publications

Canadian Research Index
index to  municipal, provincial, territorial &  federal government publications

Further resources and tools

• Finding book reviews and writing book reviews  (SFU Library)
• Giving effective presentations (SFU Student Learning Commons)
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills (SFU Library) You can also book a Presentation consultation through SFU Research Commons
• How to write an annotated bibliography (SFU Library)
• Writing services offered by the Research Commons including writing consultations and the Read Ahead service, which does cover policy-writing assignments
• Policy Writing  (SFU Library Public Policy) Suggestions and examples for writing policy briefs and memos

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