Atkinson Housing Co-operative: A Leading Edge Conversion from Public Housing

Abstract

In 2003 the Atkinson community became the first public housing project to convert into a non-equity co-operative. After providing a brief introduction to the development of non-market housing policy in Canada, this paper discusses the process of creating the Atkinson co-operative. The conversion of Atkinson has produced a new model of social housing, in that Atkinson operates neither as a pure housing co-operative nor as a public housing project, but rather as a synthesis of the two models, referred to as a hybrid, or an incorporated co-operative within the public sector. The features of the hybrid arrangement are grouped within the following categories: land/property; finances; property management and administration; governance and decision-making practices; education and community programs; housing charges/rents; and living in public housing. The final section of this paper locates the Atkinson experiment within the tenant-management literature in public housing and also discusses the conversion as a process in community development. Although it is premature to determine the efficacy of this model, the results are likely to influence the movement for increasing tenant involvement in the management of public housing.

Keywords:

• Public housing
• housing policy
• community development

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Kahanoff Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (file number 842-2000-001) for their support for this research. The authors also thank the various stakeholders, especially the residents, for agreeing to spend their valuable time to share their knowledge for the sake of this research.