About the Advocate
Marie-Josée Houle (she/her) was appointed as Canada's first Federal Housing Advocate in February 2022, marking a new chapter in a career defined by her work in the affordable housing and homelessness sector.
Ms. Houle is an experienced leader who is recognized for her community activism, expertise in human rights, and extensive knowledge of the housing and homelessness system.
Prior to her appointment as Canada's first Federal Housing Advocate, Ms. Houle has held a number of roles that inform her broad experience, including frontline work in housing co-ops, consulting and project management for affordable housing development, by-law review, housing-related research projects, developing educational programs for housing co-ops and non-profits, and senior leadership roles.
Most recently, she was the Executive Director for Action-Logement, an Ottawa housing loss prevention organization, where she did extensive work in research, education, community partnerships, and on developing tools to support successful tenancies in spite of intensified inequity, growing failures and human rights violations in the housing system. Ms. Houle was also formerly the Executive Director of OCISO Non-Profit Housing Corporation (now called Unity Housing Ottawa). She has also worked as a development consultant and project manager on seven new and existing housing co-operatives and non-profit housing corporations.
Ms. Houle has been actively involved in advocacy work at a national, provincial and community level. She has advocated for tenant rights and the non-profit housing sector at all three levels of government. She has worked with diverse partners in the sector to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, improve efficiencies, influence key opinion leaders, leverage strategic partnerships, and address gaps and human rights violations related to housing and access to housing. Building a sense of community among diverse partners is particularly important to her. Ms. Houle has been a member the National Right to Housing Network, the Ottawa Alliance to End Homelessness and the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association. She sat on the Ottawa Homelessness Community Advisory Board, the Ottawa Social Housing Network Steering Committee, and co-chaired both the City of Ottawa's Housing Loss Prevention Committee, and the Refugee 613 Housing Task Force.
A supporter and amplifier of marginalized voices, Ms. Houle promotes respectful and inclusive dialogue, creating a space for disadvantaged people to be heard, and applies an intersectional and anti-racism lens to her advocacy work. She has liaised with Indigenous housing providers, developers and tenant support organizations to devise ways to be a better ally, support their work and amplify their voices.
Born in Val D'Or, Québec, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, she holds a Master of Arts in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences from the University of Alberta. Ms. Houle is fluently bilingual in English and French.
About the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate
The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate is housed and supported by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate supports the Advocate in carrying out their mandate. Together, we promote and protect the human right to housing in Canada, including the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing.
While the Advocate's position is independent, working in partnership with the Commission will strengthen our work as we both push for human rights and the human right to housing for all in Canada.