Active Projects
Documentary Film: “No Fixed Address: The White Cart Memorial” (in partnership with BC Centre for Palliative Care)
The purpose of the film is to provide a deeper understanding of bereavement experiences among individuals with unstable housing, including the impact memorials can have on their grief journey and the challenges of creating/maintaining them. The film calls for compassion and deeper societal reflection on how we support this population through their grief after a loss.
This film is dedicated to all those who died unhoused and those who continue to grieve without shelter. May this film help us remember and create positive change in the grief support in your community. Only by the community coming together can we create a safer place for people to grieve.
View the film’s trailer here and visit Whitecart.ca for more information on the film and resources.
This project has been funded in part by contributions from the BCCPC, Health Canada, the Health Care Policy and Strategies Program through the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative Seed Grants program, and the University of British Columbia Okanagan Eminence program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Memorials at Outdoor Sheltering Site 4 (OS4) in Kelowna (in partnership with BC Centre for Palliative Care)
The goal of this research is to better understand the impact that the community memorials in OS4 (e.g., memorial white cart and memorial grave) have on the community of people who are experiencing homelessness, and to understand what other community memorials people who are experiencing homelessness may like to see in their community moving forward (if any).
Data collection for this project included 22 in-person interviews with people with lived experience. The interviews were held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation in what is colonially known as Kelowna, BC. A full manuscript is in preparation.
This project has been funded in part by contributions from the BCCPC, Health Canada, the Health Care Policy and Strategies Program through the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative Seed Grants program, and the University of British Columbia Okanagan Eminence program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Community-Engaged Homelessness Infrastructure Development
(2024-2026, Housing, Infrastructure, & Communities Canada Research & Knowledge Initiative)
The purpose of the study is to engage a variety of community members to investigate the feasibility for the development and implementation of a tiny home community in Kelowna. The project will conduct a thorough analysis of Kelowna’s rental housing landscape, identifying gaps in affordable, subsidized, and supportive housing, and recommending infrastructure, social services, and transportation to meet the community’s needs. CHID will include individuals with living and lived experience of homelessness, service providers, and other community members, in the research process ensuring the project aligns with local aspirations and housing requirements. Manuscripts and summary results of this research study are in preparation and will be available soon.
This project has been funded through the Housing, Infrastructure, & Communities Canada Research & Knowledge Initiative.
Le but de l’étude est de mobiliser une variété de membres de la communauté afin d’examiner la faisabilité du développement et de la mise en œuvre d’une communauté de micro-maisons à Kelowna. Le projet mènera une analyse approfondie du paysage locatif de Kelowna, en identifiant les lacunes en matière de logements abordables, subventionnés et avec soutien, et en recommandant des infrastructures, des services sociaux et des solutions de transport afin de répondre aux besoins de la communauté. Le CHID inclura des personnes ayant une expérience vécue ou actuelle de l’itinérance, des fournisseurs de services et d’autres membres de la communauté dans le processus de recherche, afin de s’assurer que le projet corresponde aux aspirations locales et aux besoins en matière de logement. Des manuscrits et des résumés des résultats de cette étude de recherche sont en cours de préparation et seront disponibles prochainement.
Ce projet a été financé par l’Initiative de recherche et de connaissances de Logement, Infrastructures et Collectivités Canada.
Lived Experience of Bereavement in the Context of Homelessness (in partnership with BC Centre for Palliative Care)
The goal of this research is to better understand the bereavement experiences for those with lived experience of homelessness, and to understand what is needed to improve the grief support moving forward. Data collection for this project included 80 in-person interviews with people with lived experience of bereavement in the context of homelessness and 2 closing events. There were 40 interviews and a closing event held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation in what is colonially known as Kelowna, BC, as well as 40 interviews and closing event held on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations in what is colonially known as DTES of Vancouver, BC. Results of this research study are being analyzed and manuscripts are in preparation.
For more information on this project:
- Video on the preliminary data
- Grief and Bereavement ECHO Session – Bereavement in the Context of Homelessness
This project has been funded in part by contributions from the BCCPC, Health Canada, the Health Care Policy and Strategies Program through the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative Seed Grants program, and the University of British Columbia Okanagan Eminence program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Past Projects
Organisational Changes to Address Homelessness: Lessons Learned from 3 Mid-sized Canadian Cities
(2020-2023, SSHRC Insight Grant)
Homelessness is growing in our smaller urban centers across Canada. Plans to end homelessness are increasingly prevalent, but we know little about how service organisations adapt to the substantial process changes brought about by these plans and their Housing First approach. This study will examine organisations’ responses to plans to end homelessness in three comparably sized cities with varying levels of progress along their local homelessness plans: Lethbridge, Alberta (AB), Kelowna, British Columbia (BC), and Sherbrooke, Quebec (QC).
The Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Homelessness & Service Provision
(2020-2022, Making the Shift)
Our broad goals are to produce:
1. A retrospective, structural / systems chronology of the Youth Coordinated Access Table from intent and form at onset through the pandemic, as well as lessons learned for future planning and for other jurisdictions interested in implementing a similar strategy
2. A parallel sense of how youth services evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic response, and the resulting impact on access and experience of youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness
Creating Allyship in Research
(2020-2022, Enactus Canada in partnership with the John Dobson Foundation Faculty Advisor Research Grant)
The research project aims to chronicle the perspectives and strategies, from a lived experience lens, on how to genuinely integrate their ideas, perspectives and voices into the research process. Through the Kelowna Homelessness Research Collaborative (KHRC), lived experience involvement is being piloted as a co-researcher strategy in partnership with the Lived Experience Circle on Homelessness (LECoH) group based in Kelowna, BC.
Examining the effectiveness of integrated housing, mental health and addiction service models for youth experiencing homelessness
(2020-2024, Making the Shift)
A study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of Housing First for Youth (HF4Y) and integrated mental health and addiction (IMHA) services for youth (16-24) experiencing homelessness and experiencing concurrent mental health and substance use problems within Kelowna (and later Toronto) through interviewing which will include both quantitative and qualitative measures over a period of 2 years. The Kelowna study will be in partnership with the Foundry/CMHA Kelowna integrated mental health and addiction program.
Response to COVID-19 in Kelowna’s Homelessness Sector: A Brief Survey of Successes and Challenges
(2020-2021)
This study includes brief interviews conducted remotely with a range of service providers at organisations frequented by populations experiencing or at risk of homelessness (health services, shelters, outreach, etc.). Questions explore evaluations of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic so far, as well as current and potential supports moving forward. This information will help guide scope and structure of further research phases in support of service provision during COVID-19.
Homelessness Research in Kelowna: Journey Home Research Cluster
(2019-2026, UBC Eminence)
This study allows for an expansion of the Kelowna Homelessness Research Collaborative study through further examination of how new technologies can be harnessed to help end homelessness and the assessment of various social and health services innovations, with particular focus on the implementation of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) screening tool within community organizations. This implementation is to identify individuals making use of community services who may be suffering from a TBI and determine the prevalence of TBI in Kelowna’s homeless population. https://research.ok.ubc.ca/research-excellence/research-clusters/homelessness/
Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre
(2019-2023, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant)
This study will (1) examine how new technologies can be harnessed to help end homelessness; (2) complete a community analysis/assessment of homelessness stigmatization in the Kelowna community; (3) and assess various social and health services innovations with Kelowna’s service providers in adopting a Housing First approach, thereby laying the groundwork for a coordinated systems response to homelessness.
Addressing Homelessness in Kelowna: Establishing Participatory Action Research Priorities
(2019-2020, Vancouver Foundation Participatory Action Research Convene)
This study involves hosting a series of workshops between researchers, social serving agencies, and individuals with lived experience of homelessness to explore research possibilities that will lead to evidenced-based innovative programs that prevent homelessness among people who are at high risk of losing their homes. The foci of the workshops includes: 1) discussion of vulnerabilities that place people at risk of first episode of homelessness; 2) discussion of possible solutions to homelessness vulnerabilities; and 3) discussion of research opportunities and identification of research priorities that would address the issue of preventing homelessness.