Module 3 redevelopment and gentrification
 Gentrification – process of where underdeveloped/funded neighbourhoods see the
entrance of high-income people and they invest into neighbourhood, causing increase of
appeal/value of neighbourhood
o Inner city
o Used to be exclusively residential, then commercial, recently rental housing
 August and walks
o Goal of study is to examine how the financialization of rental housing is:
 Reshaping Toronto’s rental housing market
 Restructuring the social space of the city
 Financialization of multi-family rental housing
o Financialization – revenue does not only come from trading but also through
financial channels: investment, rental housing
o Financialization of housing markets
 Housing as financial assets vs housing as shelter
 Multi-family rental housing has increasingly been treated as a financial
asset
 Not unique to Toronto
 Benefits landlords
 Tenants suffers
 Toronto as the ideal case study
o Located at the center of Canada’s largest CMA – Canada’s metropolitan area
o Largest rental sector
 46% households are renters
o Canada’s financial centre - downtown
o Highly gentrified – gentrification moving to midtown/inner suburbs
 From social housing to vacancy decontrol
o 1950s – 1970s: apartment construction was massive in the city
 1. Demand for rental apartment
 2. Technology available to build high rises
 3. Financial conditions were proper – government facilitated funding/loans
to build apartments
o 1980s-1990s: rental housing construction declined in favour of condominium
development
 Started with the private sector b/c condo were more attractive – due to
immediate return
o The decline of social housing construction in the 1990s
 1993 federal government stepped out of social housing gave it to province
 1995 province stopped social housing funding passed to municipalities
o The 1997 tenant protection act and vacancy decontrol
 If a unit remain vacant, the owner can increase the rent as much as they
want
 Financialization of rental housing in Toronto
o Financialization of rental housing started as a way to capitalize on:
 Deregulation federal  provincial  municipal
 Downloading
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 Lack of affordable housing
o Private real estate companies’ transformation into REITs
Strategies of financializes landlords
o Financial landlords have developed strategies to maximize profits for investors
 Treating homes as financial assets
 Cutting costs
 Increasing revenues
 Ancillary fees
 Pass improvements to renter
 Gentrifying-by-upgrading
Geography of post-crisis intensification and expansion
o Following the 2008-09 recession, the financialization of rental housing intensified
 New and aggressive financialized landlords entered the Toronto market
and have adopted 2 major locational strategies
 Suburbs: squeezing profits from existing tenants
o Ancillary fees – laundry, parking
 Inner city: gentrifying-by-upgrade (thus displacing existing
tenants)
Repositioning spatial inequality
o Investing in multi-family housing has been profitable for financialized landlords
 The price has been paid by tenants in terms of
 Higher rents and fees
 Reduced quality of life
 The city has witnessed
 Increased neighbourhood income segregation
o Poor pushed out, affluent come in
 Restructuring of the inner city
Conclusion
o Financialization of rental housing has been allowed by neoliberal policies
o The phenomenon is particularly evident in Toronto, and this has resulted in
 Increasing inequality
 Spatial displacement
Lehrer
o Toronto’s socio-spatial transformation and its causes
 1. Continued rapid suburban growth
 2. Decline and disinvestment in the inner suburbs
 3. Inner city reinvestment (gentrification)
Gentrification in Toronto
o From the upgrading of individual houses to the construction of new condominium
towers – (root glass -British scholar – coined gentrification)
o From the inner city to neighbourhoods located beyond the immediate core
 Past: just the inner city. Now: outside the core
o From an individual initiative (1960s) to a process involving larger developers and
state support
o From a residential to a commercial process
History of Toronto’s condominium boom – city reports and polices
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o Gentrification has been supported/encouraged by the city and the province of
Ontario
 City of Toronto – higher value of land, higher property taxes
 Ontario – to limit urban sprawl
Condo generation
o Young (24-40)
o Highly educated
o Couples or singles (no children)
o Employed full time
o Above avg. income
o Homeowners
Result of the condo boom
o Affects the surrounding retail and commercial environment
 Demand
Gentrification and its contradictions
o Gentrification relies on selling Toronto as a multicultural, diverse, and inclusive
city
o Yet, gentrification has resulted in a more homogeneous, highly exclusive, and
less. Diverse city
Women and condo’s
o Even split between women and men in buying condos
o Encourage women: condo living as liberating for women
Who belongs to revitalized spaces?
o Typical condo dweller
 White
 Able bodied
 Heterosexual
 Middle – upper class
How are condos advertised
o Women as potential customers: downtown condo living as the best way for
women to enjoy life at its full
o Women’s bodies as representing condo development
Women in the scary city
o Scary environment for women
o Pleasures and risk
o Condos have security personnel, cameras
Conclusion
o Feminism is lost in the patriarchal urban social structures that:
 Define liberation through consumption
 Objectify women’s bodies in the promotion of revitalization
Richard Florida mea culpa
o Creative class – solution to urban problems – today it was not the panacea
Module 4 – Neoliberalism
 Neoliberalism in Ontario
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o Dominant when Mike Harris government – common sense revolution – premier
elected in Ontario in 1995 and re-elected in 1999
 Resigned as premier in October 2001 – due to scandals
Neoliberalism (1980s)
o Started roughly with the government of Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret
thatcher in the UK
o Main tenets are: (private sector and individual initiative)
 Personal responsibility and initiative
 Deregulation
 Privatization
 Liberalization of markets
 Free trade, global economy
 Downsizing of governments
 Cutbacks to the welfare state
 No need to provide welfare to individuals because you have done
something wrong
Provincial policies
o 1995 that affected urban spaces
 Dramatic welfare cuts
 The safe street act – fining homeless
 Amalgamation - 1998
 Reduction in number of provincial social service position
 Hurts low income
 Introduction of workfare
 Introduced to replace welfare state
 Loosening of planning restrictions
 Deregulation of the province environmental regime
 Underfunding of education
Toronto neoliberalism
o Urban neoliberalism was implemented by the province with the complicity of
sectors of society and local political actor
o Mel Lastman was elected mayor of Toronto in 1997 and re-elected in 2000
o Lastman was the local equivalent of neoliberalism embodied by Harris at the
provincial level
Mel Lastman
o Law and order and tax cut agenda
o Rewriting of the city’s official plan
o Restructuring of the workings of local administration
o Crackdown on marginal population
Neoliberalism and urban citizenship
o Impacted our understanding of urban citizenship by transforming the citizen
(member of a community) into a client (individualized subject)
R.A. Walks
o 2003 municipal election and the privatization debate
o Main issue: privatize city services
 Inner suburbs yes to private; inner city opposed
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o Miller against privatization
o Tory city services should be privatized
Everyday life
o Constitutive of the individual
o Also alienating insofar as it naturalizes a particular social order
o As a consequence of this alienation, our own arbitrariness becomes “the norm”
Urban form
o May facilitate or curtail the interaction bw different social groups
o Plays a role in defining what is normal, thus concealing the socially constructed
nature of social and political relations in the city
Privatization in Toronto
o Restructuring of the welfare state and downloading of provincial responsibilities
to municipalities
 Responsibilities pushed to cities
o The requirement of becoming a “competitive city” in the global context
Findings
o Transportation, education, housing, and health care
o Diff in solution:
 inner subs- private, inner city – public
Political attitudes and ideology
o Cost savings and efficiency
o Proper role of government and distinction bw essential and non-essential services
o Those opposed to privatization relied on. Different conceptualization of public
services in terms of the use value they provide rather than their exchange value
Socio-economic class
o Inner suburbs Exchange value understanding
o Inner city use value of understanding of public services
 Exposed more often to different individuals
Conclusion
o Urban form and everyday experiences affect ideology
Lehrer and Winkler
o OCAP and the pope squat in summer 2002
o Pope squat as a direct action to resist privatization in Toronto and oppose
neoliberal urbanism
o Ownership as a foundation concept in capitalist societies
Public space
o Defensive design
o Dundas square, regent park becoming less public
 Private security
Housing policy in Canada
o Federal government developed a national housing program only in 1044
o Most public housing stock was built bw 1964 – 1984
o In the early 1990s, federal government drastically reduced its commitment to
provide subsidized housing
o In 1995, Ontario implemented cutting to funding for affordable housing programs
and downloaded the responsibility to municipalities
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Housing policy in Toronto
o Public private partnerships
o Lack of affordable housing in the city results in overcrowding of shelters and
increase of the homeless population
o While federal and provincial funding has been revived since 2004, the backlog
created int preceding years has resulted in a housing crisis
Gentrification
o History of Parkdale: from a wealthy neighbourhood to a low-income area to a
gentrified area
o At the moment gentrification in Parkdale is relatively slow, yet market
mechanisms suggest that the current mix will not be maintained for long
Pope squat (pope visited Toronto)
o OCAP formed in late 1980s
o Summer 2002, OCAP occupied a vacant building in south Parkdale
o Occupation ended by police in November 2002 despite support shown by several
city councillors and the media
Conclusion
o Urban public and private spaces are contested sites in terms of their use and
development
o OCAP action raised critical awareness of the housing crisis in Toronto
Module 5 Toronto’s Inner suburbs
 Sewell (after WW2)
o Were used as farming or left at natural state (wildlife)
o 1950: celebrating the rural nature of Toronto outskirts
o The don valley conservation report good intentions but no mechanisms for
implementation
 Was kept in natural before WW2
 Problems:
 No clear direction, nothing was going to go back to normal (preWW2)
 Suburban growth
o 1953: urban sprawl begins
o Era of suburban growth
o Pop boom: Baby boom and immigration
 Sprawl: is it sustainable?
o Sprawl problems
 Impact on economy
 Service expectations
 Social impact
 Transportation, isolation due to difficulty of moving around
 Environmental impact (most significant)
 Wildlife destruction, agricultural, vehicle increase
o Greenbelt legislation
 To limit sprawl
 No construction actives can take place
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Rankin and McLean
o Mount Dennis: from a manufacturing hub to a disinvested immigrant reception
area
o Current redevelopment pressure in mount Dennis are associated with:
 Public transit expansion
 Vacant manufacturing land
Disinvested streets
o Gentrification and the role of commercial streets
 Gentrification threatens local commercial budlings
o Displacement of the “marginalized” as a result of economic restructuring
the 3 cities of Toronto: phenomenon of income polarization
o City #1 seen income rise by 20% near subway line and the inner city
o City 2 remained static
o City 3 income drop by 20%
o The majority of neighbourhoods in city 3 are in the inner suburbs
Racialized class projects
o racialized class projects are defined by:
 erasure of racialized people from redevelopment plans and visions
 mobilization of white privilege to manipulate the planning function
 stigmatization of commercial spaces serving low-income, racialized
immigrants
Mount Dennis
o the poorest rising in ON with a majority of pop made up of immigrants and
visible minorities
o most small businesses in mount Dennis are owned by immigrants
o the intersection of class and race in mount Dennis
o meeting held in a legion – that discriminated head coverings
Conclusion
o revitalization of disinvested city spaces:
 is led by white and wealthy actors
 further marginalizes low-income and racialized groups
Module 6
 Outer suburbs not part of the city but the GTA
 Tenets of new urbanism
o Walkability
o Connectivity
o Mixed use
o Mixed housing
o Aesthetics
o Increased density
o Sustainability
 Cornell, Markham
o From an affordable housing project (1988) to New Urbanist community with
some conventional designs
 Montgomery village, Orangeville
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o From a new urbanist to a conventional design due to residents’ resistance to
change
The beach, city of Toronto: new urbanism succeeded: political and community accepted
King west village: from industrial to trendy urban village; new urbanism at its best
New urbanism in city and suburbs
o Works better in brownfield (within inner city) sites than greenfield (suburbs) sites
because in the city there is no need to experiment and propose an alternative
vision. It can mimic the existing design without having to seek legitimization
Obstacles to change
o Public and private actors’ disinterest to change hampers attempts ot implement
new urbanism
o Existing regulations facilitate maintenance of the status quo
o Constraints imposed by the industry facilitate standardization over innovation
Moving around the Toronto region
 The Toronto region sees two different but interrelated movements:
 Goods
 People
 The region is strategically situated at the crossroads of rail and road
networks that connect it to:
 Northern Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, western Canada, the
US & Mexico
Global city transportation
o Urban regions are in competition to attract global capital and are therefore
building globalized superstructures (airports and superhighways) to accommodate
international trade
o Such globalized superstructures are interlinked with localized transportation and
transit systems that serve the everyday needs of the resident population
New urban geography
o Pearson airport
o The area around Pearson is occupied by industrial buildings and crossed by a web
of superhighways and major arterial roads
o Highways have replaced rails as the main avenue to ship goods across Canada
since WW2
Toronto Pearson airport
o Toronto’s major transportation feature
o Provides access to several destinations in the US and around the world
o Governed by the Greater Toronto airport authority (GTAA) under a private notfor-profit model
o Model was adopted with intention of freeing the decision-making process from
the influences of governments as well as shareholders
GTAA (no need to ask governments) (undemocratic)
o Acts a virtual monopoly
o Makes decisions unilaterally without any coordination in multi-level planning nad
governance
o Hence the GTAA is not an example of good regional coordination
Getting around in the global city:
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o Automobiles
 Extensive road network
 Region is characterized by extensive car production, ownership and use
 The suburbs have been built on the logic of automobile transportation
 Automobile transportation has been at the core of Canadian transportation
policy since WW2
 Consequences of car use: gridlock and air pollution
 Who lobbies for general infrastructure connections?
 Big automakers and car part makers only lobby with the goal of
keeping jobs
 Canadian auto workers is also absent from the debate
 The Ontario trucking association (OTA) is more active and
operated through formulation of transportation policy processes
and participation in ad hoc committees and other governmental
initiatives (lobbying for infrastructure)
o TTC
 A giant precarious financial position (before 1990s all three levels
supported: now only municipal; 80% comes from us)
 Transit city (2007-2010) light rail transits (LRTs), Scarborough RT rapid
transit line and bus rapid transit (David Miller)
 TTC tends to focus on the built-up core of the city because of urban
density and the need for cost recovery
Federal transportation policy
o Constitutional authority over transportation
o Since the 1990s, it has moved toward deregulation while remaining strategically
interventionist
o Its policy is based on a market-based transportation framework
 Privatization of air Canada (1988-89)
 Privatization of CNR (1995)
 Transfer of ownership of major airports to non-profit private agencies
(1990s)
Provincial transportation policy
o Metrolinx
 Formed in 2006 as the greater Toronto transportation authority
 Renamed Metrolinx in 2007
 Merged with GO transit in 2009
 It’s a government agency that manages and integrates road transport and
public transportation in the GTA and Hamilton area
Local transportation policy
o The GTA divide b/w downtown and suburban areas is evident in municipal
transportation policies
o The city of Toronto promotes public transit, cycling & walking
o Suburbs promote use of automobile and trucks
Regional governance and transportation
o Hesitant to commit money because it takes a long time to complete
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o Municipalities are mostly concerned with areas within their boundaries, thus
obstructing cross-jurisdictional solutions at the regional scale
Problems with Metrolinx and its regional transportation plan:
o Less than 1% of spending is earmarked for alternative forms of transportation like
bicycling and walking
o The plan covers a period of 25 years through capital funding beyond year 15 is
not guaranteed
Conclusion
o GTA needs better transit for social, environmental & economic reasons
o Decision, to be effective, must concern the entire region
o A collective political actor is needed to address the problems and find long term
regional solutions
Young et al.
o Factors influencing cycling rates
 Built form
 Cycling infrastructure
 User and trip attributes
 Environmental factors
 Existing social norms and role models
Cycling in Toronto
o Demographic variables don’t play big role in cycling rate same with gender
o Determining factor are physical variables: presence of bike lanes (infrastructure)
Case study: Shawnee Park
o North York
o High potential for cycling but low cycling rates
o Local government should prioritize investment in:
 Infrastructure and policies and programs
Module 7 Ethnic Neighborhoods
 Nicholas Demaria Harney
o Urban ethnic collectivity’s appropriate particular places in the plural city
o 3 modes of place making
 Quotidian
 Calendrical
 Monumental
o Goal of study: How do Italians in the city use space to articulate claims about
their relationship to particular places, to make themselves and to others
 Italians in the city space
o Italian neighbourhoods
 College street’s little Italy, St. Clair Avenue west’s Corso Italia,
downsview, and Woodbridge
 History of little Italy
o 1990s- arrival of Italians (limited English knowledge)
o 1930s- development of a commercial and residential Italian identity
o 1950s- Italians begin to move out (b/c they started earning money)
o 1970s- Italians move to outer suburbs
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Houses in little Italy
o Mediterranean style (porches)
History of Corso Italia
o Developed in 1960s
o Contains several Italian commercial storefronts
o The Italian population has diminished throughout the ears and the percentage of
new groups has increased
The Quotidian (occurs on the daily basis)
o Encompasses the everyday level of individual and collective behaviour through
which Italian Canadians make claims and seek acknowledgement of their
presence in particular neighbourhoods
 Examples:
 The evening ritual walk (passeggiata)
 Ethnic personalization of space
The Calendrical (performed regularly throughout the year)
o Encompasses the ritual marking of Italian ethnic presence performed in urban
space
 Examples:
 The good Friday religious procession
 Gathering together during international soccer tournaments
 The CHIN international picnic (international event, summer,
exhibition place, all ethnic groups)
The monumental
o Encompasses the foundation of monuments and institutions to assert the
permanence of Italians in the city
 Italian Canadian immigrant monument
 Columbus centre
Commercializing Italian identity
o Little italies in Toronto have essentialized and commodified italianness for
consumption
o In the process, italiannness has been reduced to stereotypes
Teixeira
o Toronto ethnic diversity
o Toronto’s new immigrant groups
 Cultural and racial heterogeneity
 Socio-economic heterogeneity
Toronto’s black community
o Black Canadians and Americans
o Black south Americans
o Black Africans
o Caribbean blacks
New immigrants’ settlement patterns
o Immigrants’ barriers in Canadian housing markets:
 Economic disadvantage and housing costs
 Lack of knowledge about the functioning of housing markets
 Lack of fluency in English and/or French
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 Racism
Portuguese speaking Angolans and Mozambicans (1990 – 2005)
o Reasons for immigrating
o Immigration status upon arrival
o Age upon arrival
o Household status
o Pre-existing social networks
o Relations with the Portuguese community
Residential mobility
o Reasons identified by respondents for Angolans and Mozambicans’ residential
mobility in Toronto:
 Too expensive rent
 Housing conditions
 Size of housing
Barriers met by Angolans and Mozambicans in Toronto housing market
o Housing costs versus income level
o Prejudice and discrimination by landlords
Portuguese community
o Problems met by Angolans and Mozambicans when dealing with the Portuguese
community
 Racism
 Cultural barriers
Level of satisfaction
o Angolans and Mozambicans seem overall satisfied with their current dwelling,
although they do not feel any sense of “being home”
o Similarly, Angolans and Mozambicans do not feel any sense of “being home: in
their neighborhood
Recommendations
o When invited to make recommendations, Angolans and Mozambican suggested:
 More information for immigrants
 More information for landlords (about tenants’ rights)
Conclusion
o Focus of recent immigrations
Module 8: Ethnic neighborhoods II
 Veronis
o Latin American immigration to Canada
o After the passage of the point system
 Before: racial consideration
 Place and identity
o Essentialist and anti-essentialist approaches to ethnicity, identity, and culture
 Essentialist
 Ethnicity and identity are something that gets transmitted to you by
your parents
o Place making as a strategy for identity-creation and resistance
 Latin Americans in Toronto
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o New immigrants (after 1967)
o Internally diverse
o Arrived in different waves
o Socially, economically and politically marginalized
Canada’s multicultural policy
o Multiculturism became official policy in Canada in 1971
o The policy is based on the essentializing and stereotyping of ethnic groups
o Yet the policy offers the tools to resist and develop a sense of belonging through
territorialization
Latin Americans in the city
o Efforts to create:
 A barrio Latino
 Latin American ethnic neighborhood
 A community centre (casa)
o As strategies for constructing a shared identity
Spatial essentialism
o Special essentialism is a tool
 To negotiate intra-group diversity
 To establish a sense of belonging within the host society
Sunera thobani
o Multiculturalism to divert attention from racism and used as a tool for white
supremacy
D. Ahmadi
o Diversity in urban space: from a reality to an asset
o Since 1997, the city of Toronto’s motto has been “Diversity: Our Strength”
o Diversity is a core element in Florida’s strategy to attract the Creative Class
o The mismatch bw diversity rhetoric and action
Diversity theory and discourse
o Conceptualising diversity in urban areas: from assimilation to multiculturalism to
super diversity (or hyper diversity)
o Problems with diversity and its variations
o Diversity and multiculturalism in Canada
Ethnic diversity
o The Toronto CMA is among the most diverse areas in the world and the most
diverse in Canada
Dominant diversity discourses in policy
o Diversity as a positive attribute and an economic asset to the city
 Rendering invisible the diversity that is not economically beneficial
 The discourse of the ‘good immigrant’
Inhabitants’ diversity discourses
o Perceptions and interactions with neighbors
 Ethnic/cultural diversity is a daily reality in Jane-Finch
 The disparity and the negative daily experiences of racism
 Essentializing diversity (stereotyping)
o Reallocation decisions: motives
 Housing affordability
 Availability of public housing
 Social ties
 Size/condition of dwelling
o Diversity as consequence, not a motive for reallocation
The Evolution of Gay, lesbian and Trans spaces in Toronto
 Pre-1969 gay space (was illegal in Canada)
o Cruising in the streets
o Ravines
o Parks
o Police repression of gay activities in public spaces (installation of ‘morality
lights)
 Stonewall Riots (1969)
o Stonewall and the 1969 changes to the criminal code
 Gay liberation in Canada (1969)
o Emergence of an above-ground gay community
o “there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation” Pierre Trudeau
 Contested space
o The gay village: a ghetto or a community?
 The Assimilationist phase (late 1960s-early 1970s)
 Ghetto
 The Liberationist phase (mid-1970s)
 Ghetto
 The Minority Rights phase (late 1970s)
 Does not consider gay village as ghetto but as a community
 Bathhouse Raids
o February 1981: the bathhouse raids and the ensuing street demonstrations: a
community is born
o Track two (1982)
 Queer pride in Toronto
o Queer Pride in Toronto has transformed from a political movement to a tourist
attraction
o History of Pride:
1. It began in various forms in the 1970s and became an annual event in 1981
2. The first Pride Committee was created in 1986
3. In 1991 City Council proclaimed Pride Day for the first time
 Now endorsed by the city of Toronto
 Commodification of Diversity in Toronto
o Queerness and ethno-cultural diversity are increasingly used by the city to:
1. Advertise Toronto’s cosmopolitan image
2. Support a local tourism industry based on the commodification of cultural
difference
 Rebranding the city
o Globalization and the flight of manufacturing to cheaper regions have forced
North American cities to attract and retain investment
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o Cities such as Toronto have reinvented themselves as commodities that can be
sold and bought
o Tourist districts and ethnic enclaves are part of this re-branding process
Marginalization in the multicultural city
o While certain forms of difference are valued within this commodification
strategy, others are excluded and repressed
o Broad sections of the Toronto’s population are increasingly marginalized:
1. Low-income people
2. Aboriginal peoples
3. The homeless
4. Psychiatric survivors
A history of abuse and criminalization
o How Toronto police has a history of targeting gay persons: the case of Emanuel
Jaques (1977)
 3 men rape a child, and it gets viewed on the whole gay community
Pride 2016
o Why was Pride 2016 particularly important? Who was in attendance?
 BLMTO
o BLMTO: Who they are and what they do
o BLMTO @ Pride 2016
 Stopped the parade, until organizer of pride agreed to demands (remove
police)
Mainstream media reactions
o How did mainstream media react to BLMTO action at Pride 2016?
 Harsh criticism to BLM because it was not their event
 Failed to recognize that there are black members in the community,
therefore they have the right to represent their demands
o What does it tell us about society’s reluctance to understand the intersectionality
between race, sexuality, and socio-economic status?
Marginalization of queer people
o While the city exploits exotic images of queerness, services to queer people are
reduced to save money
o The transformation of the gay village in entertainment district does little to reduce
the marginalization of lesbians, transgendered, queer of color and queer youth in
commercial establishments that remain primarily focused on white gays
Conclusion
o The impact of economic changes in cultural representations of queerness has
transformed queer spaces into valuable assets for the city
o Yet not all queers have been empowered by the new commodification of
queerness in the city
o Tolerance and diversity mean little when they are applied selectively
Module 10: The Geography of Homelessness
 Homelessness in Canada
o Increased consistently since 1969s, particular late 1980s
 Adopted new liberal policy – resulted in cutting of services that allowed
people to stay afloat
o Affects different sectors in the population
 Increase in women, seniors, veterans, indigenous people, and familes
 Preventing homelessness
o Homelessness can be:
 Managed
 Solved
 Prevented (best option)
 Since 1960s, homeless has been growing 6 times faster that the
overall population and mass homelessness has emerged since the
mid-1980s
 Intersectionality approach
o Homelessness has different causes
 Lose job, trauma
o Some populations are more vulnerable because of racism, sexism, classism,
transphobia, homophobia, ableism etc.
o An intersectional approach recognizes the impact of systemic discrimination on
the risk of homelessness
 Strategies for ending homelessness
o Bad: Prevention  emergency response (BIGGEST)  accommodation supports
o Good: Prevention (BIGGEST)  emergency response  accommodation
supports (BIGGEST)
 Predicting vs. preventing
o While predicting homelessness is often impossible, preventing homelessness is
not
o Prevention means to be able to assess and improve the conditions that lead to
homelessness
o Prevention requires the involvement of all 3 levels of government and of relevant
community-based service providers
 Types of prevention
o Primary prevention: it applies to everyone
o Secondary prevention: it applies to those at imminent risk of homelessness
 Precarious financial position – interest free loans
o Tertiary prevention: it applies to those who have previously experienced
homelessness
 Fall into homelessness again, provide counseling or support
 Typology of Homelessness Prevention
1. Structural prevention: addresses factors that leave people at risk of homelessness,
through legislation, policy and investment
2. System prevention: responds to institutional/system failures that contribute to
homelessness
3. Early intervention: aims at those at imminent risk of homelessness
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4. Eviction prevention
5. Housing stability: measures that help people retain housing
The cost of homelessness
o Homelessness costs money:
 Cost of shelters
 Cost of policing the homeless
 Healthcare costs
Preston et al.
o Immigrants and the Canadian housing market:
1. Income inequality
2. Rising housing costs
3. Suburbanization
o York Region:
1. One of Canada’s fastest-growing suburban areas
2. Immigrants constituted 43% of the region’s population in 2006
Immigrants & Housing
o From transitional to affordable housing (i.e. rental apartments)
o Economic integration and the move to homeownership
o Different rates of homeownership for different immigrant groups
o Differences in the housing market experiences of :
1. Affluent immigrants
2. Skilled and family class immigrants
3. Blocked movers (most problematic)
Affordable housing
o A prerequisite for successful settlement
o Immigrants are more likely than the Canadian-born to suffer affordability
problems
o Immigrant tenants are more likely than immigrant homeowners to suffer
affordability problems
o Affordability problems differ across ethnic origins and visible minority subgroups
Immigrants & Homelessness
o Definition of homelessness
o Immigrants tend not to use shelters and social services, while relying on friends
and family
o Causes of homelessness among immigrants:
1. Shortage of affordable housing
2. Systemic barriers to employment
3. Settlement support reduction
4. Lack of knowledge of the system
5. Discrimination in the housing market
York region
o Short supply of rental units
o Small number of affordable social units
o Abundance of expensive single family detaching housing
Immigrants in York region
o Mainly from Asia
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o Many are secondary migrants
o Tend to live as couples with children and in multifamily households
o Immigrant households tend to be large in size
Immigrants in the outer suburbs
o Immigrant households more likely than Canadian-born households to spend at
least 30% of their income on housing
o Immigrant households more likely than Canadian-born households to be at risk of
homelessness
o Financial risk is most pronounced for recent immigrants
Shortage of affordable housing
o Shortage of affordable housing increases the risk of homelessness for immigrants
in York Region
o Many immigrants are currently living in unlicensed secondary suites that are
unsafe and poorly maintained
Overcrowding
o Shortage of rental housing contributes to overcrowding
o Overcrowding increases family tensions, can contribute to family breakdown and
lead to homelessness
o Groups particularly vulnerable to homelessness as a result of family disputes:
1. Senior
2. Youth
3. Young women
Shortage of social services
o Scarcity of housing information services and homelessness prevention programs
o Lower funding for social services than in any other part of the metropolitan area
o Absence of housing counseling services, financial assistance with first and last
month’s rent, etc.
Ambiguity of Social Capital
o Newcomers in York Region tend to rely on members of their own community for
information on housing
o Pros and cons of relying on social capital
1. Pros: people that care about you, give best possible advice
2. Cons: good intention but may not know what they are talking about
Conclusion
o Housing challenges facing immigrants in York Region:
1. Shortage of affordable housing
2. Shortage of rental units
3. Scarcity of settlement services, housing counseling services, job training
and language training
Disability in the city
o Covid 19 and mask mandates
 Covid 19 pandemic
 Ontario response: state of emergencies, lockdowns, mask mandates
o Exemption to the mask mandates (provincial and
municipal)
 Agamben’s State of Exception

Emergency legislation
 Mask wearing and persons with disabilities
o Diversity in the disability community
 Clarification on terminology
 Positionality
o Canadians with disability: second-class citizens?
 Legislation providing for accommodation
 The challenging status of Canadians with disabilities: absent citizens?
 1970s
 Society’s fear of the ‘disability con’
o Mask mandates, medical exemptions and the state of exception
 The polarization around masking
 Who needs exemptions?
 Shaming and virtue signaling
 Agamben on ‘necessity’
 Biosecurity (Agamben) and biopolitics (Foucault)
 Sacrificing persons with disability on the altar of biosecurity?