Housing That Connects Us: Design Tools to Support Wellbeing

Join Hey Neighbour Collective and Happy Cities for a dynamic conversation about the recently launched Building Social Connections toolkit!

Communities across Canada are growing fast. Cities are facing pressure to cut red tape and speed up housing approvals. But housing is also critical for wellbeing and quality of life.

Planners and housing professionals have a critical opportunity to ensure that new homes not only meet supply and affordability goals—but also support the health and happiness of residents. Our new toolkit is packed with policy and design tools to ensure that new multi-unit housing provides more than just a roof overhead—a safe home where people of all walks of life can grow, meet neighbours, and feel a sense of belonging to their community.

This conversation will share:

• How planners, architects, and housing developers and operators can apply the design actions in the toolkit to ensure denser housing also supports community resilience and social connection.
• How design strategies in the toolkit can nurture wellbeing in housing for people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, household sizes, and incomes.
• Opportunities for upcoming engagement with the project in fall 2024 and beyond.

Project background:

In the face of growing challenges—including an acute housing affordability crisis, extreme weather, social isolation, and an aging population—our social connections are one of the strongest resources we have to chart a more sustainable, resilient path forward.

Over 2023 and 2024, Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, and researchers from Simon Fraser University worked together with five local municipalities and one First Nation to co-create new policies to encourage sociable multi-unit housing design. Building on the learnings from this project—and nearly a decade of prior research—we have published a new design toolkit of evidence-based strategies to nurture social wellbeing multi-unit housing. The design principles and actions equip policy makers, planners, designers, and community members to build and advocate for more socially connected, inclusive communities, drawing on long-term research and engagement with residents and housing industry actors—including city planners, architects, and market and non-market housing developers and operators.

About the speakers

Michelle Hoar, Hey Neighbour Collective

Michelle Hoar is a Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue and the Project Director for Hey Neighbour Collective. Since 2019, Hey Neighbour has been bringing together housing providers, non-profits, researchers, local and regional governments, housing associations and health authorities to experiment with and learn about ways of building community, social connectedness and resilience in BC’s fast-growing multi-unit housing communities.She is also the co-founder of The Tyee, where she led the business operations of one of Canada’s most highly regarded independent media companies from 2003 through 2016.

Madeleine Hebert, Happy Cities

Madeleine is a senior housing specialist with Happy Cities, where she works with professionals and communities to boost social connectedness, resilience, and wellbeing through intentional design and policies. Her work promotes collaborative approaches and ensures that spaces provide equitable opportunities for everyone.Madeleine has experience designing educational facilities and housing projects across the province of BC. Her educational background includes a multidisciplinary Environmental Design degree from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Architecture from Carleton University.

About the organizers

Hey Neighbour Collective (HNC) brings together housing operators, non-profits, researchers, local and regional governments, housing associations, and health authorities. Together with residents of multi-unit housing, these HNC partners take action to alleviate loneliness and social isolation through building social connectedness, resilience, and capacity for neighbourly support and mutual aid. HNC is housed at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. Key academic research partners include SFU Urban Studies, Gerontology, and Health Sciences.

Happy Cities is an urban planning, design, and research firm that uses an evidence-based approach to create happier, healthier, more inclusive communities. Our firm has spent over a decade collecting evidence on the links between wellbeing and the built environment. Our Happy Homes research shows how intentional design can reduce social isolation and boost community resilience in multi-unit buildings, culminating in a toolkit to help housing providers turn wellbeing evidence into action. As part of our housing practice, we advise municipalities, developers, and housing providers on strategies to support resident wellbeing throughout all development stages.

Project funders, supporters, and participants

• BC Centre for Disease Control
• BC Non-profit Housing Organization (BCNPHA)
• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
• City of Burnaby
• City of New Westminster
• City of North Vancouver
• City of Surrey
• City of Vancouver
• Landlord BC
• Metro Vancouver
• Plan H, BC Healthy Communities
• Simon Fraser University (SFU) Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERI)
• Tsawwassen First Nation

• Vancity Community Foundation

This project received funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the views expressed are those of the author and CMHC accepts no responsibility for them.