What is the Social Return on Investment in Affordable Housing? A Case Study of the Community Renewal Corporation’s Affordable Housing Program

The University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation 2.0 (UWCRC2.0) develops real estate and provides project management services to non-profit organizations. UWCRC2.0 is currently developing a number of affordable housing projects in downtown Winnipeg. The current project will bring together UWCRC2.0 staff with researchers in the Department of Economics at the University of Winnipeg to calculate the social return to investment (SROI) in affordable housing by UWCRC2.0. This analysis will highlight the social, economic and environmental benefits of UWCRC2.0 housing per dollar invested in such housing. This analysis is important because a strictly financial analysis may miss potentially significant non-market benefits of affordable housing. It will provide valuable information for UWCRC2.0 and potentially other community renewal corporations across Canada. It will also provide a valuable contribution to the academic literature both in terms of methodology – discovering financial proxies for Canadian non-market benefits – and in terms of its overall findings for the Manitoba context.

Faculty Supervisor:

Melanie O’Gorman

Student:

Partner:

UWCRC 2.0 Inc.

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Real estate and rental and leasing

University:

University of Winnipeg

Program: