Participatory Research By/For the Precariously Housed in a Time of COVID-19

In light of the rapidly unfolding consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic among the precariously housed community of the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, we offer some reflections drawn from an ongoing activist research project the Right to Remain that has supported the life-saving frontline organizing response for tenants living under adverse housing circumstances in single room occupancy (SRO) buildings. With the public health system predictably overwhelmed at the onset of the pandemic, the gap was quickly filled by grassroots tenant organizers, whose capacity and credibility grew quickly as a result of their intimate knowledge of SROs and level of trust with tenants. From our experiences in chronicling their efforts between March and December, we describe how activist participatory research has important roles to play ‘beyond’ the project. With a vaccine just arriving, we are only half way through the crisis, and the ability to sustain basic supports, let alone continue on a pathway of transformative critical research, is in peril as burnout grows and tenants’ lives, including among our own collective, continue to be placed in jeopardy.