The Huron County Immigration Partnership has been studying over the last year the different challenges faced by newcomers to Canada in the Huron and Perth area regarding housing.
Mark Nonkes, Manager of the Huron County Immigration Partnership, says the study involved five focus group discussions involving 40 participants in Goderich, Listowel, St. Marys, and Exeter. He says they wanted to better understand what some of the unique challenges were of newcomers when finding housing.
"In our study, 48 per cent of the participants were spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing every month, and the people who were worst impacted by that were those who had arrived in Huron or Perth but were fleeing war, such as in Ukraine or Syria, for instance," Nonkes pointed out. "Newcomers, it was found, liked living in our communities, and they felt safe here and found people to be welcoming and friendly. But the way people found housing was either through somebody they already knew in the community that helped them out, or through social media."
Following the findings that were gathered from those initial five focus groups, the Huron County Immigration Partnership will now get set to host four upcoming community conversations designed to share what was learned and identify local solutions.
Nonkes says they are looking to engage with anyone who's interested in coming out and sharing ideas, including outside-the-box suggestions to help make transitions for newcomers to our areas more smooth when it comes to housing.
"We don't have hammers and nails to build houses, but we wonder if there's other ways to be thinking about housing, or how people get information about housing, or how we can imagine housing experiences to be improved in the future for people who are new to Canada," Nonkes said.
When it comes to newcomers, Nonkes stresses that many people don't realize that those newcomers can face challenges that residents who are already in the country don't tend to face or consider.
"They have unique challenges. So they don't necessarily have family or friends to go back to in Canada. They don't have a credit or rental history here," Nonkes said. "They may even face barriers such as racism or xenophobia, which is a dislike of immigrants. So, that's why we feel it's important to study this when people ask 'Why is it important to stufy this particular group?'"
The upcoming community conversation dates and locations are as follows:
July 22, 6–8 PM – Goderich Library, 52 Montreal St., Goderich
July 29, 6–8 PM – St. Marys Library, 15 Church St. N., St. Marys
August 7, 6–8 PM – North Perth Library, 260 Main St. W., Listowel
August 14, 6–8 PM – Exeter Library, 330 Main St. S., Exeter
Refreshments will be provided during the sessions. Advance registration is encouraged: https://forms.office.com/r/Vd31WJre9c
You can also read the full report done by the Huron County Immigration Partnership here: https://www.huroncounty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Newcomer-Experiences-Of-Housing-Huron-Perth.pdf