Rachel Long, She/Her/Hers
Tell us about yourself:
I'm in my final year of PNB (Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour) at McMaster. I light up when I'm able to ideate creative solutions to complex problems, and forge meaningful connections. Citylab is built with these priorities in mind, and I appreciate how much better it's made me at navigating ambiguity and engaging with my community, as well as introducing me to so many incredible people.
Through this experience I've discovered great cafes like Redchurch, explored chedoke, ate top notch pancakes, thought a lot about my own privilege and realized my fascination for public transportation. I've also fallen in love with Hamilton.
I walk away from SIR with a forever changed perspective on housing, a "just dive in" attitude and aspirations to amplify silenced voices in my future work.
How is your project going so far?
My team is tackling affordable housing, specifically affordable home ownership. For context, affordable housing is generally subsidized housing at 30% of the gross house income. Affordable ownership falls between affordable rental & market rent, and within Hamilton is primarily championed by organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. These organizations pay the down payment (the main barrier for ownership for many) and home owners pay their mortgage back to the organization.
Our understanding of this area of the continuum has been informed by multiple conversations with key stakeholders throughout Hamilton, and working closely with city staff. We've begun to better understand Affordable housing challenges such as funding, application/building delays, long waitlists and supply problems. We've had some really poignant conversations on who we should be building for and how to incorporate sustainability into these processes. Our deliverables include sourcing recommendations to bring forward to the city in order to inform the Housing Sustainability & Investment plan, and increased ability to manage complex projects.