housing crisis Archives - News@91��ɫ

Lack of affordable housing affects student mental health, promotes social hierarchies

sandramc — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 17:14:00 +0000

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2022 – Trying to find student housing in Toronto not only requires resourcefulness and creativity, but it further exacerbates the marginalization of students and creates socio-economic burdens, says 91��ɫ Associate Professor , lead author of a new paper.

The researchers found that navigating a tight housing system, especially during a housing crisis, puts students in a difficult position where a lot of time and energy is spent trying to find a suitable place to live.

“A lack of affordable housing can impact the academic, health and well-being of students, as they face not only a high level of stress, but also a socio-economic burden that can further marginalize them and reproduce social hierarchies, and class, gender, racialized or ageist divides,” says Sotomayor of the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

Luisa Sotomayor

Students reported feeling disengaged from their classmates, programs and post-secondary institution, and experienced heightened mental and physical health issues. “Adding to the stress, students often find themselves without a voice in how to make student housing more available and affordable,” says Sotomayor. Most housing studies haven’t included the perspective and experience of post-secondary students.

The paper came out of a multi-university Toronto-based research project, , conducted between 2017 and 2019 that set out to address post-secondary student housing challenges in Toronto. The researchers from 91��ɫ, Ryerson University, the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education and the University of Toronto, used focus group data to examine student housing preferences, strategies used to access affordable accommodations, and how housing and economic stress affects their well-being.

Many students report having to work extra hours or take on multiple jobs to pay rent – impacting the time they have for academics and social lives. This was especially true for students that didn’t have the financial support of families.

“The lack of affordable housing also left students vulnerable to illegal clauses in rental agreements, often aimed at exploiting their lack of legal knowledge or their fear of losing access to the unit. This was reported in rooming houses with high numbers of international students and women,” says Sotomayor. “Other times, students were asked for illegal and non-refundable application fees, the illegal collection of their private information, such as passport images from international students or health insurance numbers, and for a deposit larger than the legal first and last months of rent.”

Part of the issue is students have no related tenant rights or protections linked to their student status in Ontario.

The students say involvement and multi-stakeholder approaches are needed to overcome Toronto's student housing crisis, including better information around housing options, universities connecting them to trusted landlords, advocating on their behalf, and encouraging student unions and organizations to get involved in housing rights issues. At the city and regional levels, student should be included in affordable housing plans and discussions.

The researchers say student contributions to urban life, as well as local and regional economies are substantial, but they are rarely seen by policymakers as an asset.

The paper, , will be published in the journal Cities in May, but is currently available.

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91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

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Sprawl can be vertical or horizontal, tackling it requires a hard look at housing policy

sandramc — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 14:32:00 +0000

With Brampton as a case study, 91��ɫ U researchers find pandemic has exacerbated issue

TORONTO, Jan. 26, 2022 – Usually when people think of urban sprawl it’s rows of houses spread out horizontally from a city centre, but in a new paper, 91��ɫ researchers say vertical sprawl is equally an issue. Sprawl is tied to the lack of accessibility, how houses are commodified and financed, and the current housing crisis, which the pandemic has exacerbated.

Roger Keil

“There is a growing tendency to see peripheral horizontal expansion as the problem, while the focus on building more dense vertical development continues unabated,” says Professor , an expert in cities, suburbs and infrastructure in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

Sprawl is big-ticket politics in Ontario where converting real estate properties into financial assets is driving the economy in the province, and particularly the GTA, argues Keil and contract faculty Murat Üçoğlu of the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. Their paper, , was published in journal disP – The Planning Review and assesses the effect of planning policies in Ontario over several decades.

“The politics of sprawl need to go beyond the usual anti-sprawl narrative by accepting that the centre is as problematic as the periphery,” says Üçoğlu.

The researchers use Brampton as a case study for the GTA. Its official plan prioritizes compact residential condominium and commercial development in and around the city core.

Murat Üçoğlu

Keil and Üçoğlu explain how it went from an upscaled regional governance which operated through a framework of land-use planning, which helped protect a regional greenbelt, designated growth centres and rolled out transit investments.

“It wasn’t a perfect safeguard against sprawl,” says Keil, “but it did alter land-use practices, transportation policies, and change the politics around densities. There was still an increase in regional density as well as low-density subdivisions being built.”

But the discourse around planning, growth management and regional government has begun to change in recent years. “One of the biggest issues to tackling sprawl is understanding how it’s tied to the financialization of housing,” says Üçoğlu.

As of 2019, real estate was the economy’s leading sector with a 12.8 per cent share of the $1.99 trillion GDP, followed by the construction sector with a 7.17 per cent share.

Real estate also led the Ontario economy with a 13.01 per cent share of the province’s GDP of $744.44 billion as of 2019, followed by construction with a 6.78 per cent share.

“Construction and real estate sectors are the biggest drivers of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Canada and Ontario. If this were to slow down, it could create a financial crisis,” says Üçoğlu. “It is dependent on the creation of a market-oriented housing system, rather than affordable, social and public housing systems.”

This stems from the economic growth model that was first embraced in the late 1990s, which depends on growth in the real estate, financial and construction sectors. The researchers say this model relies on the financialization of housing and massive suburbanization to drive the sale of more houses and mortgages.

In their paper, , published in the fall issue of the journal Built Environment, Keil and Üçoğlu argue that economic growth based on the financialization of housing has created a fiscal trap for the system. This makes it difficult to create new housing options to slow the ongoing housing crisis and makes it difficult for newcomers to access the housing market.

“This has fed into rising homelessness and made it increasingly difficult for young people and new immigrants to access the housing market, while increasing unaffordability,” says Keil.

To address the housing crisis, which the pandemic has deepened, there needs to be an understanding of the link to finance capital that is now driving sprawl and density in much of the Toronto region. Future discussions need to focus on how to de-financialize cities, say the authors.

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Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

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