On June 1st, 2026, the Balanced Supply of Housing and Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) partnered with UBC Connects to host the BC premiere of Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing at UBC’s Robson Square in Vancouver. The screening brought together housing researchers, advocates, and community members for an evening of film, reflection, and candid conversation about what genuinely affordable housing looks like, and what it will take to build more of it.
About the Film
Directed by University of Waterloo Associate Professor Dr. Brian Doucet, the film defines affordable housing as housing that costs no more than 30% of before-tax income and makes a compelling case that private market development has consistently failed to meet the needs of those most in need. Featuring bold examples from across Canada, from the Whistler Housing Authority to tenant organizing through My Old Apartment in PEI and the St. Lawrence neighbourhood in Toronto, the film argues that if we treat housing as a human right rather than a speculative investment, then housing solutions beyond the primary market are well within reach. It will, however, require all levels of government to step up to build and maintain non-market housing for the impact to reach all Canadians.
Since its launch in Collingwood, Ontario in October 2025, the film has had 36 screenings across Canada, including French-language screenings in Quebec and an international screening will be happening later this year in the Czech Republic. The June 1st event marked its BC premiere.
Panel Discussion Highlights
Following the screening, a lively panel discussion was moderated by Andrea Reimer featuring Dr. Brian Doucet; Djaka Blais, Executive Director of Hogan’s Alley Society (HAS); and Dr. Craig Jones, Associate Director of HART.
Several Key Themes Emerged From the Conversation:
Public land as a transformative tool: Panellists discussed how public land represents one of the few sites where communities can do something fundamentally different from the status quo. Dr. Doucet pointed to an example from his hometown Kitchener, where public land was used to build housing for women fleeing violence. Rather than selling public land to the highest bidder, municipalities can attach affordability conditions or partner with non-market housing providers eager to build what the market won’t.
Community land trusts and cultural redress: Djaka Blais shared the story of Hogan’s Alley Society, which was established in 2019 to seek redress for Black households displaced by the construction of the Vancouver viaducts. HAS now holds an entire city block as a Community Land Trust (CLT), with plans for a cultural centre, childcare, and businesses, taking land permanently out of the speculative market. Blais noted that Black households are rent-burdened and significantly overrepresented in Vancouver’s homeless counts, comprising 6–9% of homeless-count respondents while representing only 1.2% of the general population.
The impact of provincial funding decisions: Blais also noted that HAS’s first major housing project was impacted by the recent provincial decision to pull Community Housing Funding (CHF), which had been a vehicle for delivering deeply affordable housing. CHF funding enabled HAS to include units at shelter rate, rent-geared-to-income, and low-end-of-market rents, but without it, the project needs to go back to the drawing board and likely won’t be able to deliver the same level of affordable units. Sustained, grant-based investment is essential for non-market players to deliver the affordability levels that communities need.
Indigenous-led housing as a model: Panelists highlighted the partnership between the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (MST) and Canada Lands Company as an example of the bold, transformative work First Nations are doing to create housing supply, with a significant share of new housing to be built on and led by MST Development Corporation in Vancouver in the coming years.
Solutions, not just problems: Dr. Doucet emphasized that advocates and researchers broadly agree on what’s needed: rent regulation, curbing speculation, and building non-market housing in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, faith-based organizations, and community groups. The challenge is political will. “This isn’t rocket science,” he noted. “Sometimes the solutions are staring us in the face.” And as the film demonstrated, many of those solutions are already being implemented at the local level here in Canada.
A Call to Action
The evening reinforced a growing consensus: Canada has both the knowledge and the tools to build genuinely affordable housing. What’s needed now is courage, from all levels of government, from community organizations, and from advocates willing to champion specific, actionable solutions. As HART’s Dr. Craig Jones reflected, his own life was changed when he found housing in a co-op as a low-income graduate student. These models—ones with genuine affordability measures that remain affordable in the long run—work. The question is whether we have the will to build them at scale.
To learn more about the film or host a screening in your community, visit housingfilm.ca. To explore HART’s research and tools, including the forthcoming BC Public Land Map, visit hart.ubc.ca.
The Balanced Supply of Housing (BSH) is a SSHRC-CMHC funded partnership grant led by Dr. Alexandra Flynn at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, focused on land use, housing financialization, and sustainable housing futures across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
