Houses for All is the story of the struggle for social housing in Vancouver between 1919 and 1950. It argues that, however temporary or limited their achievements, local activists pplayed a significant role in the introduction, implementation, or continuation of many early national housing programs. Ottawa's housing initiatives were not always unilateral actions in the development of the welfare state. The drive for social housing in Vancouver complemented the tradition of housing activism that already existed in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, in the United States.

Jill Wade's profile page

Jill Wade teaches British Columbia history in the university program at the Open Learning Agency in Burnaby, B.C.

Wade’s account is a valuable contribution to the largely unknown history of Vancouver’s early social housing movement and -- in no small measure -- a valuable contribution to Canada’s housing history.  It is to be hoped that Wade will write a sequel.

Canadian Historical Review

A text which is readable and urbane yet packed as tightly with information as people were in the 1940s Vancouver housing stock.

BC Studies

I would recommend this strongly to anyone who is interested in the history of housing, and to a lesser extent municipal politics, in Canada.

Canadian Journal of Urban Research, December 1994