Date: April 23, 2025
Time: 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
The Balanced Supply of Housing presents a Research in Progress webinar on the institutional barriers facing non-profit housing providers in Montreal—and the pathways forward. BSH researchers Dr. Nik Luka and Adam Mongrain and Ines Zerrouki from Vivre en Ville will present key findings from their research, including firsthand experiences from housing providers navigating these challenges. Learn how the sector is moving from historic roadblocks to promising new solutions, shaping a more accessible and resilient housing market. This research is part of BSH’s Overcoming Institutional Obstacles to Non-Market Housing Production in Montréal project.
About the Speakers
Adam Mongrain is Housing policy director at Vivre en Ville, a public interest non-profit organization advocating for sustainable land use and thriving communities. Vivre en Ville has established itself as an innovative and indispensable broker for local governments, developers and community stakeholders in Quebec, and is increasingly looked to as a promising model across Canada. Over the past years, Adam and his team have documented barriers to housing affordability in densely built environments, and ways to reframe the problem in cultural and political rather than urbanistic terms.
Nik Luka is based at McGill University, where he is cross-appointed to two professional schools (Architecture and Urban Planning) as well as the Associate Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montréal. As an ethnographer, his work in research and professional practice focuses on the (re)production of everyday space, including the deliberate policy-led remaking of cities and suburbs, and he is especially intrigued by narrative, representations, text, and discourse. His work addresses general themes familiar to architects, landscape architects, planners, and geographers: housing, infrastructure, public space, cultural landscapes, urban design, and deliberative democracy. Dr Luka has worked in close collaboration with civil-society organizations and state agencies on co-production through community-based design for almost 25 years.
Alina McKay is a housing researcher and the Research Manager for the Housing Research Collaborative and Balanced Supply of Housing at UBC’s Peter Allard School of Law. She completed her Masters in Sociology, and PhD in Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on the links between housing security and wellbeing. In her role as the Research Manager for the Balanced Supply of Housing, she helps coordinate collaboration between the Balanced Supply of Housing’s academic and community-based researchers. She has also directly supported a number of Balanced Supply of Housing research projects including, “Filling the Gaps: Evictions and Government Policy in Vancouver During COVID-19,” “Re-evaluating National Occupancy Standards: A Comparative Analysis of Housing Suitability Measures in Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario,” and “Accessible Housing Needs in Canada.”
Ines Zerrouki is a Housing Policy Advisor at Vivre en Ville, where she conducts research and develops content on housing policy and market dynamics. With a background in urban planning, communications, and real estate development, she is passionate about public policy, social inclusion, and housing market behavior. She holds a bachelor’s degree in urban planning from Université de Montréal and is a candidate for professional certification with the Ordre des urbanistes du Québec (OUQ). Before joining Vivre en Ville in 2023, she worked as a Project Manager in Communications at YAM Montréal, a nonprofit focused on environment and urban agriculture. She then transitioned to real estate development as a Coordinator at Groupe Canderel, deepening her understanding of the housing market. With her interdisciplinary expertise, Inès is committed to advancing sustainable, inclusive, and evidence-based housing policies that shape resilient communities.
