2022 CMHC Housing Research Award Winners

April 18, 2023

At-a-glance

The CMHC Housing Research Awards recognize innovative and impactful housing research being done in Canada.
Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik and her team were awarded the 2022 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research. Their work focuses on climate change and housing loss from the 2018 – 2019 flooding of the Wolastoq River in New Brunswick.
Dr. Abe Oudshoorn is the recipient of the 2022 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence for his research on making permanent supportive housing work for vulnerable populations.

The CMHC Housing Research Awards provide funding support to housing researchers in Canada. Better housing information helps governments and housing providers create more housing that is affordable, supportive, accessible and sustainable. The Housing Research Awards are a funding initiative under the National Housing Strategy.

See CMHC President and CEO Romy Bowers’ message to the 2022 Housing Research Award recipients.

Transcript

(Music fades in.)

(Visual: Government of Canada logo, National Housing Strategy logo and CMHC logo fade in together. A woman appears. She speaks)

00:02
I’m excited to present the winners of our 2022 Housing Research Awards, which recognizes impactful housing research being done right here in Canada.

(Text on screen: Romy Bowers, President & CEO — CMHC)

00:13
Better housing information means better housing policy. It helps guide governments and housing providers in their effort to create more housing that is affordable, supportive, accessible, and sustainable. Research projects like the ones we're honouring today are doing just that. First, I’d like to announce the Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence. This award recognizes research that increases our understanding in one of the National Housing Strategy’s priority areas.

(Text on screen: Winner: Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence. Congratulations! Dr. Abe. Oudshoorn.)

(Visual: Dr. Abe Oudshoorn, smiling, appears on the screen as he is identified as a Housing Research Award winner. External image of a Western University banner. Cut to internal shot of Abe typing on his computer in his office.)

00:45
This year’s winner is Dr. Abe Oudshoorn for his research on making permanent supportive housing work for vulnerable populations. Congratulations!

(Visual: Romy Bowers appears on camera. She continues to speak.)

00:56
Next, our highest honour, the CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research. It recognizes research that helps us achieve our aspiration to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada.

(Text on screen: Winner: President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research. Congratulations! Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik.)

(Visual: Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik, smiling, appears on the screen as she is identified as a Housing Research Award winner. External image of Julia’s office at the University of New Brunswick. Cut to internal shot of Julia typing on her computer in her office.)

01:10
This year, the award goes to Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik and team. Their work focused on climate change and housing loss from the 2018-2019 flooding of Wolastoq in New Brunswick.

(Visual: Romy Bowers appears on camera. She continues to speak.)

01:25
Congratulations and thank you to both our winners!

(Music volume goes up)

(Visual: Government of Canada logo, National Housing Strategy logo, and CMHC logo fade in together. Logos fade to white.)

(Music fades out)

Meet the 2022 award winners

In 2022 we recognized 2 innovators who are helping shape the future of housing in Canada — Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik and Dr. Abe Oudshoorn.

2022 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research

Our highest honour, the CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research, recognizes research that helps us achieve our aspiration to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada. The 2022 award focused on the theme “housing and climate change”.

Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik, Ph. D. and team from the University of New Brunswick led the research, Climate Change and Housing Loss: Investigating Residential Displacement, Housing Damage and Associated Vulnerabilities from the 2018 and 2019 Flooding of the Wolastoq in New Brunswick.

This research improves our understanding of the housing needs of lower-income and other disadvantaged groups following housing damage or loss. It provides evidence-based policies to ensure the basic human right to housing for people displaced by climate change. This information will help improve housing stability and climate resiliency in the long run.

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2022 CMHC Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence

The Gold Roof Award for Housing Excellence recognizes outstanding research on affordable housing in Canada. This research increases knowledge or understanding in one of the National Housing Strategy’s priority areas.

Abe Oudshoorn, Ph. D, from Western University led a team to complete the project, Making Permanent Supportive Housing Work for Vulnerable Populations (PDF). This research explores housing practices that support vulnerable populations from implementation to evaluation.

This work will improve the delivery of permanent supportive housing. It’ll also grow the adoption of this innovative approach which is centered around prioritizing the voices of people with lived experience of housing need.

Discover this research

If you’re inspired by the housing research highlighted here, learn more about the Housing Research Awards.