| Access to housing is considered a UN human right and is linked by research to a range of social and economic indicators. Despite this, many Canadians are denied access to decent, appropriate and affordable housing. Social housing is seen by actors in the housing movement as an alternative to the shortfalls of the market. Community groups, intermediary organizations, and representatives of the state interact in a complex process, shaping social housing development and policy. This dissertation explores these relationships in order to contribute to the community organizing that aims to influence social housing, particularly in immigrant neighbourhoods. These concerns about social housing policy coalesced into questions about how the relationships between social housing actors influence the development of projects and policy and how community groups organise to have an impact.;Findings were based on observation and interviews with 29 individuals working in 22 different organizations or agencies that are connected to social housing development and policy for Cote-des-Neiges. The complexity of the interactions between organizational character the roles they play in relation to the state, the community organizing models they employ and the context in which they operate is documented are analyzed. Emerging from the constellation of different actors, organizing approaches and roles, is the message that, given the non-monolithic of the state (Ng et al. 1990), a diversity of tactics is necessary and useful. The most effective community organizing strategy in working for social housing in Cote-des-Neiges has proven to be, as I was told by one organizer, "de tout avec ben de la sauce"!;A qualitative case study of Montreal's Cote-des-Neiges neighbourhood was used in order to address these questions. Literature on analyses of the state in capitalist societies, the welfare state and housing policy was used as a backdrop. The traditions of community organizing and the different models that guide community groups' choices of strategies and tactics were also consulted in order to develop a conceptual framework. Liberal and Marxist analyses of the state, theories about roles played by community groups in relation to the state and the models of community organizing were the principal elements. |
