BW – Livable Communities
Communities driving
GLOBAL CHANGE
Communities are under pressure. McMaster researchers are powering solutions to housing and food insecurity. We turn evidence into action for stronger, more livable communities.
Real problems. Real impact.
A blueprint for Canada’s housing crisis
Canada must look beyond its borders and learn from locally led and highly collaborative “city deal” models to address the country’s growing housing crisis.
McMaster housing expert Jim Dunn says adopting policies that have worked in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Finland will help Canada rapidly develop more affordable housing.
“Other countries are in the same boat as we are,” says Dunn, director of the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC) and sociology professor of health, aging and society.
“To date, we haven’t done a great job of learning from other countries. We need to change that.”
Solutions for poverty and homelessness
Information Box Group
Concrete with a human touch
Can we make infrastructure that repairs itself?
In a climate of harsh winter weather, Canada’s roads, bridges, sidewalks and buildings face a frequent problem: cracks caused by large temperature swings. These cracks weaken infrastructure and cost millions to repair every year.
But what if concrete could heal itself like human skin, keeping our structures, roads and bridges strong and saving millions of dollars?
Mouna Reda, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Civil Engineering, and Samir Chidiac, professor of Civil Engineering, are researching the potential of self-healing concrete with an approach known as ‘encapsulation’.
How we’re fighting food waste and insecurity
Information Box Group
Opinion: The affordability crisis is one reason governments need to step up for school food
Despite the hard work and dedication of hundreds of local grassroots organizations across Canada to deliver student nutrition programs, there are not enough funds to purchase the food to meet student needs. A survey of parents and teachers in southern Ontario found that far too many school food programs cannot adequately meet the existing nutritional needs of hungry students.
In 2024, the government of Canada announced a new National School Food Program and policy and as of March 10, 2025, the federal government has made school food agreements with all provinces and territories.
Tina Moffat, a nutritional anthropologist and professor of anthropology at McMaster University, says this is an opportunity to reinvent school food across Canada and to catch up to other G7 countries that have long-running traditions of school food programs.
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