Reviving Housing Forms That Have Stood The Test Of Time

exterior view of four storey apartment building
photo by Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC, used with permission.
Dean Street Studio apartments: permanently affordable housing developed by the non-profit Women's Development Corporation in Providence Rhode Island.

Ipek Türeli is based at the School of Architecture at McGill University in Montréal. She has recently written an article in The Conversation about the housing crisis in Canada and the United States. Having moved five times in the past 10 years herself, she is well aware of the energy and effort that goes in to moving.

Türeli’s article discusses examples of non-market housing in Montréal and Rhode Island that were created with government support in the 1970’s. At the time, public funding was shifted away from direct government provision of housing (public housing) and toward supporting construction of non-profit and co-operative housing. Fifty years on, these buildings have rents that are well below private market units. Tureli says that adding to the supply of non-market housing will help end homelessness and reduce financial housing stress for households with low incomes.

The article includes a video about non-profit housing projects developed by the Women’s Development Corporation in Rhode Island. You can check it out in The Conversation: Canada’s housing crisis will not be solved by building more of the same

Türeli’s perspective on the need for non-market housing is echoed in campaigns for social housing on the west coast of the United States1. Her particular contribution is an extensive knowledge of the non-profit and co-operative housing sectors. She has also written an article on the subject in Global Discourse: An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs: Empowerment through design? Housing cooperatives for women in Montreal

Ipek Türeli can also be contacted at: ipek.tureli@mcgill.ca

Footnotes

  1. Try: West Coast U.S. Activists Struggle To Reinvent A Housing Wheel