Professor Jacqueline Kennelly is Co-Investigator on a recently funded Partnership Grant examining the experiences of residents across Canada who live in different types of affordable housing. Funded through the CMHC-SSHRC managed research funds released as part of the National Housing Strategy, Dr. Kennelly is the lead researcher of the Ontario regional project, alongside regional leads in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.
Dr. Kennelly's Ottawa-based research will explore the experiences of formerly homeless young people who have moved into affordable housing, including youth-specific social housing, city-wide public housing, non-profit housing, and portable rent supplements in the private market. The research will determine whether different types of affordable housing result in different social outcomes for young people, including access to employment, schooling, sense of safety in the neighbourhood, and health and well-being. The Ottawa project will be linked to the other regional projects through shared research tools and information gleaned from the newly released Statistics Canada National Housing Survey, which will also be analyzed as part of the Partnership Grant.
With national and international steering committees of housing researchers and housing providers, as well as lived experts, the project is designed to be participatory and community engaged. Local Ottawa partners include the Youth Services Bureau, the City of Ottawa Housing and Homelessness Branch, Ottawa Community Housing, Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, and the United Way of Eastern Ontario. Formerly homeless young people will be trained as co-researchers in Ottawa, and will conduct interviews alongside Dr. Kennelly and graduate students from Carleton University.