Undergraduate students compete at U of T this weekend to tackle affordable housing challenges

ullahnor — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 20:24:26 +0000

ullahnor Fri, 03/10/2017 - 15:24

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Regent Park, Canada's oldest and largest social housing development, is being revitalized with a mixture of condominiums, market-rate rental apartments and public housing (photo by the City of Toronto via Flickr)

Kim Luke

Author legacy

Kim Luke

Topic

City & Culture

urban

Cities

Geography

Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

The students behind CivicSpark – a ��Ƶ group devoted to fostering the next generation of city builders – will bring 13 undergraduate teams from universities across the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA) together this weekend to offer solutions to the area’s affordable housing problem.

“With the cost of housing constantly increasing, there is a real concern that people, especially marginalized and vulnerable groups can be pushed out of their homes,” said CivicSpark’s co-founder Edwin White Chacon, a fifth-year Arts & Science undergrad who is majoring in political science, and ethics, society and law.

The competition comes at a time when the ��Ƶ is exploring different housing approaches to help make the city more livable and sustainable. U of T President Meric Gertler is working with the presidents of three other GTA universities to tackle affordable housing through a call for research proposals. U of T is also looking into building laneway houses in the Huron-Sussex neighbourhood bordering the St. George campus.

Ethis

Undergraduate students compete at U of T this weekend to tackle affordable housing challenges

Read more about the call for research proposals on affordable housing

Read more about laneway housing initiatives