On April 1 and April 3, 2019, nine speakers from the community housing sectors in large urban areas of British Columbia and Quebec shared the stage in Victoria B.C. and collectively told a story. They told a story of community organizing and housing innovation in Canada for a more socially inclusive society that they hope to build. The theme of community equity building weaved through their individual stories, highlighting how they are incrementally acting to increase local control of urban land development through development of housing as community-owned assets.

This event, titled “Community Housing for Resilient Communities,” was part of the 51st National Congress on Housing and Homelessness organized by the Canadian Housing Renewal Association (CHRA). Over 200 people attended the event. Summary of these stories was subsequently presented in Montreal at a grass-root conference called “From the Ground Up/À Nous les Quartiers” on April 14, 2019 where community control of land, housing and economy was discussed.

This report hopes to present the story behind the project for future leaning purpose. How did the project get started? Why story-telling format? What was the process? Why these nine speakers? How did the nine speakers focus their stories into one collective narrative? What are the key messages in the stories they shared? How to continue the dialogue started by this project?

The report includes two parts. Part one discusses the project’s background, objectives, iterative research process and the format of collective-storytelling. Part two includes all the scripts from the nine speakers and provides the context and highlights of the key messages within.