Urban Newfoundland struggled with housing problems during the 20th century: both a lack of houses and the burden of poor-quality houses.
In 1944, the St John’s Housing Corporation (SJHC) was established by the city and the Commission of Government to build a garden suburb and perhaps do away with the poor-quality houses in the inner city. The SJHC built more than 200 houses and almost 100 apartment units in Churchill Park. In 1952 the provincial government supported a program of housing cooperative societies in which the members built their houses themselves. This program built more than 600 houses in St John’s, Grand Falls, Gander, and Corner Brook.
The 2023 George Story Lecture will describe and evaluate these two programs.
Watch the Lecture at: Housing in Newfoundland: A Century of Problems, Solutions, and Unintended Consequences