About

The Aging in the Right Place Partnership 

Canada’s population of older adults experiencing homelessness is increasing. However, this growing population is largely invisible in research. Though there are many different programs in place across the country to support older adults experiencing homelessness, there is no clear “one-size-fits-all” solution.

The Aging in the Right Place (AIRP) Partnership aims to address this silence. The AIRP Partnership is a five-year, three-city project to evaluate innovative solutions to supporting older adults who are experiencing homelessness and housing precarity or who are homeless-experienced.

Through a partnered, community-based approach, researchers in Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver work with housing providers, stakeholders, and persons with lived expertise to measure what works, why it works, and for whom it works. The AIRP Partnership’s goals are:

  1. to build capacity and knowledge to bridge the gaps between research and practice; and,

  2. to promote policies that are proven to support aging in the right place for older people.

     

What Exactly is “Aging in the Right Place”?

The majority of Canadians want to grow old in their own homes, or “age in place”. But this is more challenging for homeless, housing precarious, and homeless-experienced older adults whose living environments may not be able to safely support them as they age. The AIRP Partnership adopts “aging in the right place” as its theoretical framework, which considers how older adults can live as long as possible in their homes while recognizing that an older person’s living environment must support their unique needs, lifestyles, and vulnerabilities.

How does the AIRP Partnership engage with partners and lived experts across cities?

The AIRP Partnership includes more than two dozen co-investigator and collaborators, forty partner organizations, and older adult advisors with lived experience of homelessness.

The Lived Expertise Advisory committee is made up of older adults with experiences of homelessness from Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary. They, along with partner organizations, provide insights and guidance to each city’s Local Advisory Committee. The Executive Committee guides the project and ensures communication and knowledge sharing across cities. Dr. Canham, the AIRP Partnership’s Project Director, helms the Executive Committee and liaises with the project’s funding agencies, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as well as the CMHC-funded Collaborative Housing Research Network (CHRN) Hub.

Funders

Jointly funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the AIRP Partnership is part of Canada's National Housing Strategy to support sector innovation and new housing solutions.

We respectfully acknowledge that McGill University is situated on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We respectfully acknowledge that the University of Calgary is on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta and home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III. We respectfully acknowledge that Simon Fraser University is located on unceded Coast Salish Territory, the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil‐Waututh Nations.