The Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council (HIPC)  has been shaped in 2009 to facilitate community partnerships to coordinate and enhance their delivery systems such as housing, education, employment for newcomers to Hamilton (Canada). They carried out the research by HIPC  regarding affordable housing as a significant challenge for newcomers in Hamilton. In 2019 the HIPC approached the McMaster Research Shop to expand by conducting an environmental scan of affordable newcomer housing initiatives across Canada. The main objective of this research is to provide HIPC with a plain language report and include brief case studies of replicable examples and recommendations for future initiatives focused on housing newcomers, especially in Hamilton Canada. The research is based on affordable housing Canada, newcomer affordable housing Canada, affordable housing initiatives and subsidized housing initiatives and housing providers/agencies in Canada, newcomer housing supports Canada.

Results from our environmental scan of newcomer affordable housing initiatives in major urban cities across Canada, including Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, and Vancouver, identified six programs with promising features and the greatest chance for replicability in Hamilton. All these programs provided emergency shelter or transitional housing, as well as housing stabilization support, which included accommodation search and advocacy support. Five of the programs also provided wrap-around supports, such as counseling, language classes, and employment training in order to ensure holistic care of their clients.