{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T19:45:02Z","timestamp":1784922302015,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772755200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100021557","name":"Healthy Cities Research Initiative","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PJW-175416"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PJW-175416"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100021557","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Social housing plays a critical role in addressing housing inequality and promoting well-being. This paper examines the creation of a registry of social housing sites across all six Ontario Health (OH) regions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>For all 47 housing service providers in Ontario, social housing address, provider type, and building type were extracted from their website or from documents provided by the housing organization. The Registry included rent-geared-to-income housing with unique or minimally shared postal codes. Descriptive statistics were analyzed for the housing site characteristics aggregated by OH region.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>2,109 social housing sites were included in the final Registry, including 472 designated as seniors only (low-income naturally occurring retirement communities, LI-NORCs). There were regional differences in the proportions of each tenant designation, postal code uniqueness, housing provider types, and building classifications. For instance, the Toronto and North West regions had higher government-owned social housing sites (61% and 57%), whereas the East region had more non-profit owned sites (55%). Apartments were the most common building type across regions (57%), with varying proportions of townhouses and single\/semi-detached houses.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A social housing registry, the SHO, has been established, serving as a valuable resource for health research, especially for marginalized populations. It can be linked to other datasets for future studies. The SHO Registry provides a robust method for the determination of LI-NORCs (low-income naturally occurring retirement communities).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1770282","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T06:43:48Z","timestamp":1772779428000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Development of the Social Housing of Ontario (SHO) Registry by health region: a platform for health research with the social housing population"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Gina","family":"Agarwal","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]},{"name":"Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Melissa","family":"Pirrie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mikayla","family":"Plishka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kumindu","family":"Gamage","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]},{"name":"Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ricardo","family":"Angeles","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jasdeep","family":"Brar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]},{"name":"Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christie","family":"Koester","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guneet","family":"Mahal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francine","family":"Marzanek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manasvi","family":"Vanama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University","place":["Hamilton, ON, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2210","DOI":"10.1080\/02673037.2023.2170988","article-title":"Ethno-racial and nativity differences in the likelihood of living in affordable housing in Canada","volume":"39","author":"Choi","year":"2024","journal-title":"Hous Stud"},{"key":"B2","unstructured":"Social and Economic Condition"},{"key":"B3","unstructured":"Affordable and Social Housing\n          \n          2018"},{"key":"B4","unstructured":"Canada\n              I\n            \n          \n          About the National Housing Strategy\n          \n          2024"},{"key":"B5","unstructured":"Rent-Geared-to-Income\n              Housing\n            \n          \n          City of Toronto\n          \n          2017"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"69","DOI":"10.1017\/S0714980822000125","article-title":"Aging in place in social housing: a scoping review of social housing for older adults","volume":"42","author":"Sheppard","year":"2023","journal-title":"Can J Aging"},{"key":"B7","unstructured":"A Look at Subsidized Housing in Canada\n          \n          2023"},{"key":"B8","unstructured":"Social and Affordable Housing"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"473","DOI":"10.1186\/s12877-022-03116-1","article-title":"Health knowledge and self-efficacy to make health behaviour changes: a survey of older adults living in Ontario social housing","volume":"22","author":"Dzerounian","year":"2022","journal-title":"BMC Geriatr"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"233","DOI":"10.1136\/jech-2024-222526","article-title":"SARS-CoV-2 testing, test positivity and vaccination in social housing residents compared with the general population: a retrospective population-based cohort study","volume":"79","author":"Agarwal","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Epidemiol Community Health"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0301548","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0301548","article-title":"Cardiometabolic risk factors in social housing residents: a multi-site cross-sectional survey in older adults from Ontario, Canada","volume":"19","author":"Agarwal","year":"2024","journal-title":"PLoS ONE"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"718","DOI":"10.1080\/10903127.2019.1566421","article-title":"Reducing 9-1-1 emergency medical service calls by implementing a community paramedicine program for vulnerable older adults in public housing in Canada: a multi-site cluster randomized controlled trial","volume":"23","author":"Agarwal","year":"2019","journal-title":"Prehosp Emerg Care"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"S5","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amepre.2016.09.010","article-title":"The social determinants of chronic disease","volume":"52","author":"Cockerham","year":"2017","journal-title":"Am J Prev Med"},{"key":"B14","unstructured":"Affordable\n              housing\n            \n          \n          Find your Local Service Manager\n          \n          2019"},{"key":"B15","unstructured":"Canada\n              Post\n            \n          \n          Find a Postal Code"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"437","DOI":"10.1136\/jech-2024-222762","article-title":"Chronic disease prevalence and preventive care among Ontario social housing residents compared with the general population: a population-based cohort study","volume":"79","author":"Agarwal","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Epidemiol Community Health"},{"key":"B17","unstructured":"Postal Code OM Conversion File Plus (PCCF\n          \n          2017"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102158","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jth.2025.102158","article-title":"Investigating the built environment surrounding naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) in Toronto","volume":"44","author":"Fusca","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Transp Health."},{"key":"B19","unstructured":"The Affordable Housing Crisis Grows While Efforts to Increase Supply Fall Short"},{"key":"B20","unstructured":"Barton\n              C\n            \n            \n              Cromarty\n              H\n            \n          \n          Social Rented Housing in England: Past Trends and Prospects. House of Commons Library\n          \n          2024"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1186\/1476-072X-3-5","article-title":"Accuracy of city postal code coordinates as a proxy for location of residence","volume":"3","author":"Bow","year":"2004","journal-title":"Int J Health Geogr"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"58","DOI":"10.1186\/1476-072X-5-58","article-title":"On the use of ZIP codes and ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) for the spatial analysis of epidemiological data","volume":"5","author":"Grubesic","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int J Health Geogr"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"232","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjqs-2019-009800","article-title":"Community level socioeconomic status association with surgical outcomes and resource utilisation in a regional cohort: a prospective registry analysis","volume":"29","author":"Mehaffey","year":"2020","journal-title":"BMJ Qual Saf"},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e009401","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.121.009401","article-title":"Race, social determinants of health, and length of stay among hospitalized patients with heart failure: an analysis from the get with the guidelines-heart failure registry","volume":"15","author":"Segar","year":"2022","journal-title":"Circ Heart Fail"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"69","DOI":"10.12927\/hcpol.2020.26352","article-title":"Co-locating older retirement home residents: Uncovering an under-researched population via postal code","volume":"16","author":"Brath","year":"2020","journal-title":"Healthc Policy"},{"key":"B26","unstructured":"North\n              at Home\n            \n          \n          The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario and Advocacy North\n          \n          2021"},{"key":"B27","unstructured":"Focus on Geography Series, 2021 Census - Ontario\n          \n          2022"},{"key":"B28","unstructured":"Population Density"},{"key":"B29","unstructured":"North at Home: Understanding Housing Conditions in Northern Ontario\n          \n          2021"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1770282\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T06:43:58Z","timestamp":1772779438000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1770282\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]]},"references-count":29,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1770282"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1770282","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]]},"article-number":"1770282"}}