Study Information

Who is conducting the study?

You are being invited to participate in this study (Impacts of housing co-ops on renters’ experiences of housing crises) that is being conducted by Drs. Samantha Thompson and Jeff Masuda. Samantha is a postdoctoral researcher and Jeff is a professor, both in the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria. Samantha can be contacted via email at spthomps@uvic.ca or by phone at and Jeff can be contacted via e-mail at jeffmasuda@uvic.ca. The project is also supported by our graduate student research assistant, Liam Fox, who is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto.

This study has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation).

What is the purpose of this study?

You are being invited to take part in this research study because you are a current or previous resident of a housing co-op in Vancouver, or a politician, government official, policymaker, or involved with an organization whose work relates to housing. We are interested in learning more about your experience of living in a co-op, the ways you may have experienced support and community in your housing, and your perspectives on the futures of co-ops and housing more generally.

It is your choice whether or not you want to take part in this study.

Your participation is voluntary.

If I choose to take part in this study, what will I do?

If you are interested in participating in an interview: Over the course of a roughly 30-60-minutes, audio recorded interview, we would like to discuss your experience living in a co-op, how the housing operates, how you have experienced support in your housing, your previous housing experiences, and your relationship to your neighbours and communities through the co-op. We will also take notes during the interview to help support our analysis. You have the option to review the transcript of your interview if you wish, before it is used in the study. Interviews will be conducted by Samantha Thompson, Jeff Masuda, or Liam Fox.

If you are interested in participating in a focus group: Over the course of a roughly 2-2.5 hour, audio-recorded group conversation, we would like to discuss your experience living in a co-op, how the housing operates, how you have experienced support in your housing, your previous housing experiences, and your relationship to your neighbours and communities through the co-op. We will take notes during the conversation to help support our analysis and content from focus groups will also be recorded using a graphic recording service. Graphic recording is a unique and generative form of notetaking, where the notes are visible to participants and take the format of both illustrations and text. Graphic recording aims to capture the themes of the conversation and can be helpful to identify connections that may have been missed in the discussion. The graphic recording product will be given to focus group participants and the co-op as well as included on the project’s publicly-available StoryMap (see below).

Prior to the beginning of interviews and focus groups, we will also ask you demographic questions (neighbourhood, age, gender, race, ethnicity, income range, sexual identity), but you do not have to answer these questions if you do not want to. We ask these questions because it is important to us to have a diverse range of identities and perspectives represented in the study.

The study also plans to develop a public tool on a website called a StoryMap. Some examples of what StoryMaps can look like can be seen at https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-storymaps/gallery/. A StoryMap is a tool that helps us to tell a story in an interactive way, by including archival documents, audio clips, photos, etc. Visitors to the website can click through the site to learn more about a topic. The project intends to create a StoryMap to help people to learn more about what it is like to live in a co-op, co-op residents’ experiences, and the history of co-ops in Vancouver. If you consent to participate, typed quotes from your interview may be used in the StoryMap. You may also choose to consent to having excerpts from the interview audio recording used in the StoryMap as well. If you do not consent to us using the audio recording, the audio recording will be destroyed after we have transcribed your interview.

Your participation is completely voluntary. You have the right to refuse to participate in this study. If you decide to participate, you may still choose to withdraw from the study at any time without any negative consequences to the employment, housing, or other services to which you are entitled or are presently receiving.

Some of the questions in the interview or focus group may seem sensitive or personal, but you do not have to answer any questions that you do not want to, take a break, or withdraw at any point. You do not have to provide a reason if you decide you want to withdraw from the study. If you choose to withdraw, all information you have shared will not be used in our analysis, and will be destroyed. You will be able to keep the interview incentive even if you withdraw from the study.

How long will this take?

If you are interested in participating in an interview: The interview will take approximately 30-60 minutes of your time and will take place by phone, over Zoom, or in-person at a location that works for both you and the interviewer. Reviewing this Letter of Information and Consent form may take up to an additional 30 minutes. You have the option to review the transcript of your interview later on, though this is not required.

If you are interested in participating in a focus group: the focus group will take approximately 2-2.5 hours of your time and will take place in-person in either the co-op’s common room or a community room at a nearby community centre. Reviewing this Letter of Information and Consent form may take up to an additional 30 minutes.

What are the potential harms and discomforts?

Interview questions during interviews and focus groups may cause participants to reflect on emotionally intense experiences. Participation may raise questions for others about why they participated and/or what they talked about. In focus groups, participants will be able to hear the responses of each other and this might create some social risk for you. Interviews and focus groups might cause fatigue or stress. If you prefer, interviews can take place off-site. We have provided a list of contact information for resources at the end of this document if accessing additional support after participating would be supportive for you.

What are the possible benefits of taking part in the study?

You will have the opportunity to reflect on your experiences, knowledge, and opinions. In the future, others may benefit from what we learn in this study.

Will I receive any compensation for taking part in the study?

For interviews: you will receive a $40 cash incentive in acknowledgment of your knowledge, time, and expertise.

For focus groups: you will receive a $50 cash incentive in acknowledgment of your knowledge, time, and expertise.

If you begin the interview or focus group and then decide you want to withdraw, you will keep the research incentive.

Who will see my information?

Your confidentiality will be respected. Information that discloses your identity will not be released without your consent unless at any point in the study, you tell the researchers that you plan to harm yourself or others, the researchers will report this information to the appropriate authorities. There are also limits on this confidentiality based on how you choose to participate in the study. You will have the option to use your real name in study results if you like. You may also choose to consent to including your interview audio recording in the project’s StoryMap (storytelling website platform), in which case your voice may be recognizable to those who know you. If you consent to participating in a focus group, we cannot guarantee that information shared during the focus group will not be shared outside the group. As a result, participants should only share information that they are comfortable sharing. If you attend a public community event, your photo may be taken.

All documents will be identified only by a unique code number and kept on a password protected computer and the password protected University of Victoria server, called UVic Research File Share and OneDrive. These services are hosted by UVIC and on Canadian servers. Participants will not be identified by name in any reports of the completed study unless they have consented to this. If transcription services are used, transcribers will sign a confidentiality agreement. Any physical documents gathered for this project will be kept in a secure, locked filing cabinet. Consent forms and identifying information will be stored separately from other data so that your responses cannot be connected to your identity.

Consent forms will be securely stored separately from other data (audio files, etc.) to protect your privacy. After consent forms have been uploaded to the secure UVIC server, hard copies will be destroyed. If you provide verbal consent and do not wish to be identified on the recording, a pseudonym can be used in field notes and in the audio recording. Except where participants have given consent for their audio files to be included in the project, identifiable data and audio recordings and consent forms will be deleted 5 years after the project has concluded.

Within five years after the completion of the project, the data will be deidentified as much as possible. Data collected from this study may be used in deidentified form for educational purposes, archives, submitted to an open source data repository, or shared with other researchers. Your privacy will be maintained in any data sharing. As the project receives support from SSHRC, deidentified data from the project will be deposited into a secure, accessible, online research repository such as UVic’s Dataverse Collection/Borealis.

How will the study results be shared?

Findings from the study, including the graphic recording product from focus groups, will be reported in journal articles, books, media articles, in the project’s StoryMap and community publications, and presented at workshops, conferences, and lectures. Findings may also be shared with housing co-ops, government officials, policymakers, organizations, and publicly online. If you agree, your name will be included in these publications or presentations, if you wish your name to be associated with your experiences and statements. If you do not consent to this, your name will not be used in these publications or presentations.

Summarized study results, focus group graphic recording products, and the StoryMap will be made available on the PI’s website, online at  www.samanthapthompson.com.

Who can you contact if you have questions about the study?

If you have any inquiries about the study, please contact Dr. Samantha Thompson at spthomps@uvic.ca.

Who can you contact if you have concerns or complaints about the study?

If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, you may contact the Human Research Ethics Office at the University of Victoria at 250-472-4545 or ethics@uvic.ca.

Please note:

• You may end the interview or leave the focus group at any time.
• You may change your mind and withdraw from the study at any time. There is no need to explain why you changed your mind.
• If you withdraw from the study your interview contribution will not be used in the analysis or final report.
• If you participate in a focus group and withdraw from the study, your data will be used in a summarized form only with no identifying information. This is due to the integrated nature of group discussions.

Resources for Support:

Sometimes participating in interviews and focus groups can cause heightened emotional experiences, stress, and other emotions. We have compiled a list of resources that may be able to provide additional support for you. Please note that we are not affiliated with these services.

• BC HelpStartsHere: Directory of different types of health and wellbeing support in British Columbia. https://helpstartshere.gov.bc.ca/.
• National Crisis Line: Connects callers experiencing a mental health crisis to a B.C. crisis line without a wait or busy signal. Available 24 hours, 7 days a week. Phone: 310-6789 (no area code).
• BC211:
  • Call or text 211 for help navigating different resources available.
  • Go to www.bc.211.ca and click on “Housing”, then put in your postal code to view housing support resources available in your area.  
• 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433): toll-free, confidential crisis line for people who feel suicidal or know someone who might be suicidal. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in up to 140 languages.