Colin Phillips
Adjunct Professor, The University of British Columbia's School of Social Work
Colin Phillips (he/him) is a policy professional and educator who has spent his career finding solutions to the homelessness and housing insecurity that the most marginalized in society experience. Colin is particularly interested in the affordability and financialization of rental housing, advancing the right to housing, and harm reduction and drug policy reform. A Registered Social Worker in BC, he operates Rowan Tree Solutions, where he provides critical research and strategic advice around housing and other issues that are central to economic and social justice.
Colin has been a social work educator for almost a decade, and is currently adjunct faculty in the Schools of Social Work at the University of British Columbia and Toronto Metropolitan University. Colin holds a MSW from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Policy Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University. His dissertation utilized a critical urban epistemology, which recognizes how urban environments and urban policies shape everyday life, to contextualize the Housing First method of addressing homelessness within the era of policy retrenchment. The study moved beyond narrow definitions of success that had dominated Housing First literature to examine how housing outcomes are negatively impacted by a shrinking social safety net. Colin lives in Vancouver and is a member of the Board of Directors of First United Community Ministries Society, a large social service provider on the Downtown Eastside.
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