City of Peterborough Housing Division

The purpose of this research was to determine what feedback the City of Peterborough should gather from recipients of its supplement programs, what survey structure can be implemented on an annual basis, what impact on quality of life financial support has had on tenants, and how the rent supplement has affected the recipients' living arrangements. The City of Peterborough rent supplement program provides rent subsidies to individuals of low income to reduce the amount that they have to allocate to rent. To accomplish the goals of this study, recipients of rent supplements participated in a survey and focus group. The survey consisted of quantitative and qualitative questions inquiring about the participants' experiences since receiving the supplement. The focus group expanded on the results from the survey. Grey literature research was conducted to determine what information other municipalities have gathered on residents' experiences with their rent supplement programs. The data shows that overall the quality of life and living arrangements have improved for individuals receiving a rent supplement. Residents can now afford healthier groceries and social activities. In order to conduct the survey on an annual basis the questions should be quantitative and responses collected on a scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. This paper is a continuation of a project that is interested in the experiences of residents receiving supplements from the City of Peterborough. Part one of this research focused on geared-to-income programs. This part focuses on flat-rate rent supplements offered by the Housing Resource Centre.