School of Cities / Event

Carolyn Whitzman on “Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis”

headshot of Carolyn Whitzman and a book cover of Carolyn Whitzman on "Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis"

Join us as Carolyn Whitzman discusses her recently published book, Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis.

Home Truths addresses Canada’s housing crisis from all sides, including exploring what adequate housing looks like, providing ideas on how to resolve homelessness, explaining why nonmarket housing is crucial for Canada, and showing how and why to tackle ever-growing wealth disparities between renters and those who own.


About the speaker

Dr. Carolyn Whitzman is a housing and social policy researcher. She has worked as an expert advisor to UBC’s Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) project, which developed standardized best practices for analysing housing need, using government land for nonmarket housing, and nonmarket property acquisition, using detailed, open data. These tools have influenced federal housing policy. Currently, she works as a senior housing researcher at University of Toronto’s School of Cities, analysing best practices to scale affordable ‘missing middle’, modular, and replicable housing. She is on the federal government’s Expert Panel on the Homebuilding Industry.

Carolyn is the author, co-author or lead editor of six books, including Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis (UBC On Point Press, October 2024) and Clara at the Door with a Revolver: the scandalous Black suspect, the exemplary white son, and the murder that shocked Toronto (UBC On Point Press, 2023). She is the author or co-author of over 80 book chapters, articles, and reports, on issues related to the right to the city. She has provided expertise to national, state/provincial and local governments, UN Women, UN Habitat, and private and non-profit organizations.