Tanzil Islam

Tanzil Islam holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences, a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies, and a Certificate in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing. After spending time working in the environmental and community health sectors, she transitioned to homelessness services in 2018. Since then, she has undertaken a combination of data coordination, program evaluation, and community-based research with the Housing Services department at Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services and at Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth.

She has authored studies exploring a range of topics, including the lived experiences of unhoused individuals who choose seasonal emergency shelter networks over traditional congregate shelter settings; the transformation of the homelessness services sector during the COVID-19 pandemic; and the use of hotel shelters as an innovative response to homelessness. This body of work has contributed to her holistic understanding of the increasingly complex and worsening problem of homelessness in Canada.

Through her doctoral research, she hopes to better understand the factors contributing to the overrepresentation of East African refugees among people experiencing homelessness, while expanding and applying her skills to contribute to meaningful solutions to refugee homelessness in Canada.