Highlights from the CHEC Leadership Summit
By Dr. Rachel Weldrick and Joe Humphries
On May 30 and 31, 2025, AIRP Co-Investigator Dr. Rachel Weldrick and Lead Project Coordinator Joe Humphries attended the Leadership Summit in Toronto. CHEC, led by Dr. Jim Dunn of McMaster University, serves as the Hub for the Collaborative Housing Research Network (CHRN), which consists of five distinct projects, referred to as 鈥渘odes鈥�. Each of these nodes examines a critical issue in the Canadian housing landscape. These include:
, led by Dr. Julia Christensen of Queen鈥檚 University. This node is dedicated to researching and addressing housing challenges that are unique to Northern regions of Canada.
, led by Dr. Damian Collins of University of Alberta. This node is focused on building a resilient and sustainable community housing sector in Canada.
, led by Dr. Alexandra Flynn of the University of British Columbia.This node addresses the current housing crisis by considering whether the housing system is balanced in terms of housing tenures, locations, built forms, and costs.
, led by Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid of Cape Breton University. This node is focused on promoting affordable housing through a range of strategies and programs.
And our Aging in the Right Place (AIRP) Partnership, led by Dr. Sarah Canham, which is dedicated to addressing homelessness and housing insecurity among older adults across Canada.
The purpose of the summit was to bring together leaders from across the nodes to reflect on accomplishments to date and create momentum for the next three years of our collaboration. Over the course of the two-day meeting, each node shared highlights of their work over the past five years. This included key findings, methods used, outputs shared, partnerships developed, and successful outcomes in training students. With the three-year renewal term ahead, the focus shifted to planning and developing a strategy for dissemination and advocacy as a national network. The goal: enhance the network鈥檚 impact on policy through multiple avenues.
Key takeaways from the summit included:
Agreement on a set of clear priorities for the network, including an enhanced emphasis on training and capacity building, promoting network-wide communications, and collaborating across high-level housing themes
Commitment to quarterly webinars to share research progress, findings, and advocacy tools to partners and trainees beyond the existing network
Planning for a CHRN symposium in October 2025, ahead of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) conference in Montreal
The housing landscape in Canada is a complex system of actors, markets, and policies. More than ever, collaboration and advocacy are needed to promote positive change and push for policies that are inclusive and equitable. As a network of housing experts and community partners, CHRN has an important role to play in this work. Rachel and Joe were proud to attend this summit on behalf of the AIRP Partnership and share the project鈥檚 work with the wider network.