A Sustainable Community for the Future

The UWindsor research community is increasingly interdisciplinary, and few research groups exemplify that more than the Centre for Cities (C4C), under the leadership of Dr. Anneke Smit in the Faculty of Law. The C4C was founded in late 2019 and has quickly scaled their research, teaching, and public engagement work, even under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021-2022 they hosted their first Housing Systems and Innovation Summit, which brought together experts from across Canada to examine housing issues, present and share data, and discuss policy options for alleviating the housing crisis in Canada. “There was also a local focus”, said Dr. Smit, who was able to host an in-person event for local advocates, developers, and politicians. “Windsor and Essex County are facing serious housing challenges and we take seriously our obligation to support approaches that work for the local community. C4C aims to ensure that the conversation is data-driven and supported by best practices.”

Dr. Smit described C4C as a hub that can support many research projects focused on good citybuilding, with housing being only one of the ways they engage with research colleagues and the wider community. “We did not realize, when we first started, how much demand there is to work in an interconnected way on the most pressing local issues, encompassing engineering, health, environmental and economic research along with law and policy”, Smit added. “We are able to bring a multisectoral approach to the projects that we have collaborated on with our research partners at UWindsor and beyond.” C4C is also giving students tools for advocacy and skills to be changemakers post-graduation, as they learn to collect and assess data and present findings in impactful ways. A three-part series developed and presented by student Princess Doe in 2021 about Community Land Trusts is already impacting conversations about affordable housing locally and beyond. “We want to understand what a good city looks like, and build the connective tissue between disciplines that will be necessary to get to that good city – here in Windsor and beyond,” said Dr. Smit. “In the end those changes are made by people showing up and using what they know to change conversations and create better communities. The University has a big platform to share knowledge and innovate on housing and other issues that matter to Windsorites - and it’s part of our role to show up to that conversation every day.”