Sarah Button

Sarah has spent her career so far focused on the intersection of cities and systems, and the critical importance of affordable housing for individuals and communities. She has been working in the housing sector with a focus on community housing and housing policy for 15 years.

Sarah’s practice is informed by her background as an urban planner and policy analyst, and her overseas experience. She spent time working in the Philippines with a Cooperative housing organization and in the UK both for a private housing developer and as a volunteer program manager with a youth organization. Before joining CCOC, she worked on affordable housing policy at the federal level with CMHC’s policy and innovation divisions, where her teams designed and delivered National Housing Strategy initiatives and created the Housing Supply Challenge program. Sarah also has a long history with the organization she currently leads, having originally joined CCOC as a summer student and later volunteering as a Board and Committee member. She is currently a member of Cahdco’s Board of Directors, a non-profit housing development corporation, and represents Housing Partnership Canada on the Housing Professionals Mentorship Program’s steering committee.

Sarah holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Birmingham in the UK, as well as degrees in Communications and Architecture. She is a full member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Talking about housing is Sarah’s favorite thing to do, but her second favorite thing is being outdoors, so you can often find her on foot, bicycle, or cross-country skis out and about on Ottawa’s multi-use trails or in Gatineau Park.