CivicInquire Secures SSHRC Funding for Homelessness Policy
Data that could strengthen homelessness policies across Canadian municipalities is often fragmented, siloed, and difficult for decision-makers to navigate. To address this gap, Future Cities Institute Director Dr. Leia Minaker has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to advance CivicInquire, Canada's first intersectional, AI-powered social science platform dedicated to homelessness policy.
CivicInquire integrates machine learning, automated web-crawling technology, and in-depth key informant interviews to build a comprehensive national homelessness policy database. The platform pairs this repository with an interactive dashboard and customized visualization tools, transforming complex and disparate policy records into accessible, evidence-backed insights. By organizing municipal, provincial, and national policy frameworks into a unified digital ecosystem, the tool enables leaders to compare strategies, evaluate outcomes, and track policy trends across regions.
Designed specifically for municipal staff, urban planners, health practitioners, and community advocates, CivicInquire moves public discussions away from assumptions and toward data-driven execution. At FCI, creating resilient communities requires equipping practitioners with practical tools that bridge academic research and municipal realities. Through this SSHRC-funded initiative, CivicInquire will provide city builders across Canada with the objective baseline needed to guide effective, long-term policy decisions.