NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, housing, economics, homeless

Objective(s): The objective of this research aims to understand the meaning of housing insecurity and how it relates to homelessness.

Project Description: This licence is issued for the scientific research application No.691. This research aims to understand the meaning of housing insecurity and how it relates to homelessness. This will allow for an improved understanding of northern homelessness, how it is affected by economic growth, and how strategies to improve housing security may help to reduce homelessness. Fieldwork in Paulatuk will involve research interviews with community members as well as hold housing security focus groups which will be open to the community. In Inuvik and Yellowknife, the research will follow-up with participants from past research who identified themselves as homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless to conduct further interviews. The researcher will also conduct further interviews with government and NGO representatives who work in the areas of housing, homeless advocacy and care, policy and community development in the Northwest Territories. More focus groups are planned to take place at homeless shelters in both Inuvik and Yellowknife. Follow-up visits to the study communities will be made later in 2009 to present research findings to informants and relevant community groups. Research findings will be disseminated through community feedback workshops, popular media [i.e. CBC North radio program Trailbreaker], peer-reviewed journal articles, an edited volume on human security issues in the Arctic, as well as a doctoral thesis. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted in Yellowknife, Paulatuk and Inuvik from 20-Jan-2009 to 31-Dec-2009.