Welcome!
The Canadian Housing Library headed by Dr. Cheryl Forchuk is a virtual on-line library that consists of grey and white (academic publications/peer review) literature on homelessness and housing issues in Canada from 1995 to the present. The library is associated with Dr. Forchuk’s Mental Health Nursing Research Alliance, a research team. The intent of the project was to search for, categorize and investigate all Canadian housing literature between 1995 and to the present. Currently, the bibliography consists of 80 pages of grey literature and 120 pages of white articles. The library has a French bibliography on housing and homelessness. The references are edited and formatted according to the standards of APA citation. The abstract and a URL link are also included in the bibliography when permitted; this will help gain quicker access to the documents. All articles/reports have been retrieved, printed off, and placed in a page-protector. Afterwards, they are filed in binders, divided and categorized as either grey or white literature.
Housing is a fragmented subject, divided by the interests of diverse sectors of the population. While acquiring affordable housing is a basic premise, the specific needs of disadvantaged persons such as mental health consumers differ from those of Aboriginals, the poor, women, children, elderly, homeless, immigrants and refugees.
The Canadian Housing Library has catalogued articles on the various issues of housing and homelessness that cross many traditional areas of study such as health, geography, urban planning and economics. The key instruments used in this research have been the Internet, libraries, and academic databases maintained by organizations such as institutions, corporations, government and private consultants.
The research is divided into grey and white literature and further sub-divided by research heading. The grey literature on housing and homelessness is classified by the following headings: infrastructure, psychiatric survivors, affordable housing, poor, general, women and children, health, cross groups, legislative reports, substance abuse, budget issue, literature review, housing market, policy, immigrant/refugee, senior, youth and Aboriginal. The white literature is comprised of 15 research headings: senior, psychiatric survivors, substance abuse, children/adolescent, women, health, immigrant/refugee, disabled, policy, infrastructure, affordable housing, gender, poor, urban/rural areas and the Canadian perspective on housing. The Canadian Housing Library is there to strengthen ties among researchers and institutions. The compiled research is a strategic tool that will open the lines of communication among persons working in the field of housing research.