Speaker Bio - Esther de vos

Esther de Vos is the Director of Policy, Research and Education at Capital Region Housing (CRH) in Edmonton. Esther brings to CRH her experience in program oversight, including developing and monitoring performance measures, as well as improving service delivery.

Esther is passionate about policy development, research and analysis, and using a systems thinking approach to address and resolve complex issues and identify process improvements.  Prior to joining CRH, Esther worked for the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General, the Maintenance Enforcement Program and Legal Aid Alberta. Esther has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Victoria and a bachelor’s degree in law and bachelor’s degree in arts from the University of Alberta. She obtained her Certified Housing Practitioner from CIH Canada in 2016.

Esther is currently working towards her doctorate of social sciences, with a research focus on well-being and social housing.

Presentation Summary:

Prevention strategies are increasingly the focus of homelessness policy and research. Eviction prevention has been identified as a key prevention strategy as evictions can be a pathway into homelessness. At the same time, social and affordable housing providers serve increasingly vulnerable populations in greatest housing need and are often seen as "landlords of last resort." As such, eviction from social and affordable housing could have more consequences for tenants than evictions from private market housing. However, little is known about eviction and eviction prevention practices in social and affordable housing. This session will report on the research recently done to address this gap in knowledge.