Could Community Services Organizations help newcomers to cope with housing problems in Toronto?

Jorge Cruz Osorio, Toronto, October 25, 2022 

 

Abstract

Gentrification is a process that occurred in most of the cities, Toronto is not an exemption, as a matter of fact it is an acute problem in it. Cities with vitality tend to attract rich people or professionals that could afford to pay higher rent. These people with better income, among others factors, push the housing market toward changes in use of some areas, normally the one where people lived with lesser money, and at the same time an upward movement of houses’ prices and rent as well. Then, this means to expel the poor from those neighborhoods. In a few words, the vulnerable people are the one that received the main negative impact of those changes. They have to abandon places where they have lived for years, knew and interacted with many of the neighbors. Among the movement to cities, there is another group that came for other reasons, they are coming from a foreign country, a place where they do not have friends, a new culture, in some cases, a new language, and they do not have the knowledge on how the rent or acquisition of a house or place are ruled. This conjunct of people is so vulnerable that they need help on their integration process.

 

This paper will deal with a reflection and suggestion on how the non-profit sector could address newcomers, one of the most vulnerable people that came to cities.

 

Keywords: gentrification, newcomers, Toronto, cultural integration, Community Services.

 

 

Introduction

Everything flows, changes: time, the water on rivers and seas, the wind and its speed, temperature, seasons, nature, the planet, among others. We and cities, do it as well.

 

Then, the issue is not of transformation, but how it impacts those changes on nature, especially us, human beings.

 

We are territorial animals, we created a sense of belonging to our area, our planet, continent, country, region, town, neighborhood and home. We created a mental map of our surroundings, and identified our sector of movement. We manage our close environment, develop our culture, engage in a close relationship with other neighbors and set boundaries to others.

That attachment to certain places, it is not a barrier for visiting or even establishing us, human beings, at different parts of the globe. We normally change, compelled or not, of settlement. This adaptation process could be either smooth or harsh. We gradually become integrated to new surroundings. Newcomers * frequently have a mounting course due to many different factors, especially cultural in a broad sense.

 

The Canadian government has implemented policies which tries to make an easygoing path for newcomers through legislation, funding Community Services organization, promoting engagement and so forth, but there are some counterforces such as housing, for that reason I will bring it to the stage in this essay.

 

Housing is a huge problem in The Greater Toronto Area which is faced by many of its inhabitants, but especially for the vulnerable ones, like poor people and newcomers. It has multiple sides and factors, among them its growing population, few spaces’ availability, the kind of constructions, real estate investors, government policies, offer and demand, soaring of renting or house prices, and so on.

 

Urban life has become the option that most human beings have decided. We, as social animals, have gathered in a specific space, where from a band has been transformed in towns, cities and conurbation. With time, the territory was converted into a short piece of land to allow too many people, so we started to build buildings, from two stories to skyscrapers. Normally those changes in use provoked gentrification, which means to do some reforms to previous houses or even to tear them down and to build a new structure. For that reason, their original inhabitants are compelled to move to other cheaper places or, the worth of all, to become homeless.

 

The growth has not only due to inner natality, but to newcomers.  Generally, those who come from abroad are the most vulnerable, a brief list could be: some do not speak English nor French language (official languages in Canada); many have no network, so they have to deal by their own; the law and rules are different, for example in terms of Humans Rights and real estate clients’ regulation; they have to avoid scammers, which are expecting to rob innocent people; but especially the high cost of renting.

 

In this essay I will document how Toronto’s gentrification trend impacts newcomers. And the main objective is to make some reflection about how Community Services organization could help immigrants navigate the housing’s shock.

 

This text will be organized like this: The first will focus on gentrification in general and then Toronto, the second will deal with culture and the impact on newcomers, on the third I will write about governmental policies for housing, the following would be about the non-profit sector and its role on housing, and the last one would be dedicated to conclusions.

 

This essay is part of my Bridge to Employment Services for Immigrant Populations’ placement task at Mennonite New Life Center. I want to acknowledge those people that have spent their time to help me fulfill it: Martha Juarez and Lizeth Teran at MNLCT, Shirley Cespedes at The Help Housing Center, Beatriz Leon and family for their effort to help me, Berti Olinto for his valuable comments, my BESIP’s mates Victor Kwawukume and Mihaela Steflea for their friendship and help, Ricardo Ramirez Jr. and his family for their support, and my daughter, mom and sisters for their emotional support.

 

The methodology of this paper will use mainly secondary sources which I will find on academic articles and essays accessible online. In a few words, I will review some authors who have written essays about the gentrification process in Toronto, as well as some others that have an approach to the housing problems in this same city, and some primary sources: semistructure interviews to two workers from two Community Services.

 

Gentrification as a problem

According to the Britannica Dictionary, gentrification means “(...) to change (a place, such as an old neighborhood) by improving it and making it more appealing to people who have money” (2022)¹. Therefore, this definition shows only one side: some areas are changing for better off, landlords will earn more, the municipality will receive more taxes, entrepreneurs (shops) will invest on better or new local services, and so on.

 

But as usual, the second thermodynamic law stated, nothing is totally beneficial or harmful, yet it is a mixture of both, that is why another population is affected, the one that used to live in those places, who are pushed aside. They might look for new spaces where to live, which could be one in worse conditions or homelessness, plus what means losing a home, their identity with an area, the belonging to a community, among others. So, this renewal of the city has, at least, two side-effects: bringing new blood (specially money) and life to neighborhoods, and displacing previous neighbors, mainly those with low income.

 

Due to those last statements, Ghazal Sobhan-Sarbandi quoted other authors:

    “(…) Gentrification is “a product of political and cultural struggle” in which powerful groups seek         to defend their privileged position and maintain their entitlement to desirable areas in the city                 (August, 2014, p. Landmarks | Gentrification in Parkdale | 65 1162).” (2018) ²  

 

And remarked with another quote: “(…) In other words, “gentrification is not creating social mix but what the academics call ‘social  tectonics’ where two groups exist in the same space and don’t mix, or when they do mix, the mixing is conflictual” (Carnegie Community Action Project, 2009, p. 16).” ². In a few words, gentrification benefits some groups and spreads or reinforces poverty on others, who are normally obliged to move to other areas.

 

Let's see how this phenomenon works in Toronto.

A paper prepared by Bild and Altus Group Economic Consulting expressed the following:

    “Over the 2010‐2021 period, total residential and non‐residential construction investment in Ontario     trended upwards from $53 billion to $62 billion. Roughly half of the construction activity in Ontario     occurred in the GTA during this period. Construction spending accounted for almost 8% of GDP in        both Ontario and the GTA in 2021. Construction investment in the GTA accounts for approximately        1.4% of all GDP Canada‐wide.

 

For the last five years, even during the pandemic, construction has grown by an average of 3.1% per year in Ontario, which has meant that almost it has been twice the overall in GDP growth. Construction has been the 4^th largest sector and the 7^th fastest growing. Another important data is that residential construction has been three quarters related to investment activity (BILD and Altus Group Economic Consulting, 2022) ³.

 

This essay ³ has several interesting points. First, it shows how important the construction industry is for Ontario and, especially, Toronto economy and budget, later I will present more data related to Canada. Second, Toronto and its GTA are responsible for almost half of the investment. Third, residential renovation has least investment than new build, but later we could understand that in term of absolute quantity there are more renovation than new construction**. And fourth, until 2021 apartments were at the top of construction.

 

Now I would like to show two charts where we can see how important is construction and real estate for the economy in the GTA and then in Ontario. ³ These numbers, although big, could  have a minimum meaning or impact if we see them alone, that is the reason I shall add a third chart with the Canada economy’s picture. The first row in the first one will tell us the weight in the GDP; then, the quantity of people working, and, last, the amount of money involved. The second chart is related to the Toronto economy and the chunk that the government gets from it. Those charts will give us a general photograph on construction and real estate on how they are so important for Toronto’s economy by itself and in relation to the national economy. It is a sector which moves many other parts (economy is a system, where any activity of one of them impacts the rest).

Metric                                                                                  Greater Toronto Area Construction Sector

GDP                                                                                         $29.6 billion

Employment in Construction Sector                                   235,000 person‐years

 

Economic Activity                                                                   $60.8 billion

 

Labour Earnings                                                                      $16.9 billion

Source: BILD and Altus Group Economic Consulting (2022, March 22) The Construction Industry Driving Economic Recovery. https://www.bildgta.ca/Assets/misc/BILD%20-%20Construction%20Industry%20Driving%20Economic%20Recovery%20-%20March%2022%202022.pdf

Level of Government                        Revenues – Construction Activity in Greater Toronto

Area Federal Tax Revenue                                                           · $2.13 billion in federal income tax

(estimated based on 2021 activity)                                         · $833 million in CPP premiums

· $220 million in EI premiums Provincial Tax

 

Revenue                                                                                     · $793 million in provincial income tax (estimated based on 2021 activity)                                       · $165 million in employee health tax

     

Municipal Fees and Charges

(based on actual revenues over 2016‐2019 period)           · $1.9 billion per year in development charges

· $216 million per year in parkland cash‐in‐lieu   

                                                                                                        revenues

Source: BILD and Altus Group Economic Consulting (2022, March 22) The Construction Industry Driving Economic Recovery. https://www.bildgta.ca/Assets/misc/BILD%20-%20Construction%20Industry%20Driving%20Economic%20Recovery%20-%20March%2022%202022.pdf

 

The next chart shows that real estate and construction together sum up more than 20% of the Ontario economy, they are the most important sectors. Those are direct sectors, but we cannot see the quantity, for example manufacture or transportation, which feeds this industry. So, probably this area could be between 25% up to 30% as a whole for Canada’s total GDP.

 

This last graph below shows the shift from houses to condos. ⁵ Towers have become the leading trend in construction for the last 12 years, against house construction, as I mentioned before.

 

Now, let see what happens with condos:

It is also interesting how investors see the market: “Investors are taking note of the city’s housing shortage, meaning an astounding 90% of the new towers under construction in Toronto are residential (or will contain residential units).” (Ragan, 2022) ⁴

 

And, what it is the final use of condos: “(…) new supply of housing is largely bought by investors — and not end-users (i.e., buyers who want to live in the homes, not rent them out or hold on vacant properties for their economic value).” (Pasalis, 2021) ⁵

 

Source: BILD and Altus Group Economic Consulting (2022, March 22) The Construction Industry Driving Economic Recovery. https://www.bildgta.ca/Assets/misc/BILD%20-%20Construction%20Industry%20Driving%20Economic%20Recovery%20-%20March%2022%202022.pdf

 

 

Source: Pasalis, John (2021, July 16) Does Toronto Have a Supply or Demand Problem? https://www.movesmartly.com/articles/should-you-buy-a-home-in-torontos-overheated-market-0-0

 

So, there is an anomaly on the market behavior, the offer of new construction is running “short”, no because of lacking them, but the way the market moves to not end-user buyers, which push up prices due to this running.

 

We should ask ourselves why this happens. There are two forces leading this cart: high revenues on investment, real estate is a market that normally produces fast and good gain. And second, the upward movement is gradual and steady. There are few areas where you can get such big rewards for your investment.

 

Those are more than enough reasons for the government to allow the growth of real estate and construction by themselves, by the market rules. Economists affirm that the market corrects itself, which is partially true, but sociocultural factors are externalities where the market has no control, and therefore, never takes any action in order to correct its impact on them.

 

Thus, the government’s inaction has been a convenient and simple answer to a complex problem. The lack of assuming policies have made this trend bigger on both senses: more economic movement and more people suffering displacement and cultural shock, as we could see later on.

 

 

So far, I have been explaining gentrification, its impact and I mentioned that few steps the local government have taken to control it until recently; but there is another drawback against people with low income, among them newcomers: real estate inflation, as David Orrell described (2021) ⁶.

    “(…) The money is in the form of a loan, secured against the property. This loan is enforced by the        state, but the state does not receive interest payments. Instead, these go to the bank, in theory to            compensate for the bank’s risk. The new money created through the mortgage goes to the person            selling the property, and much of this is typically reinvested in real estate -this boosting the price of        real estate, even as inflation in the real economy remain muted. The result is that the money supply        tends to track housing prices as they ramp up exponentially.” 

 

Therefore, Torontonians have lived with a restricted inflation to real estate for several years. Its performance was absolutely different to the rest of the economy, which partially explain why this sector has so high revenues.

From all the above arguments I can say that gentrification has been a big busyness for the GTA economy. It has led the most important Toronto economic sector, but creating a huge social problem: pushing out from their neighborhood to poorest conditions or homelessness.

 

When the government allows gentrification works mainly by economic interest, the market is not interested in correcting the sociocultural problem, only in reproducing more money. So, as a result we have seen that there is inflation restricted to this area, not to the rest of it. Which makes it hard to find an accessible rent or a price for buying. In a few words, it has become a knockout for vulnerable people.

 

As a closing comment I can affirm, gentrification is not a real problem in itself, city changes, as I have mentioned at the beginning. So, it is not what changes but how changes.

 

Culture

I will start with the meaning of this concept; I will use one that Tomás R. Austin Millán (2000)⁷ has defined:

    “(…) is a net of shared meanings, meanings which gain connotation from the context (geography,        climate, history, and productive processes), which settle in the mind of people giving them a specific     identity.” ⁷

 

He also affirms that it has three basic elements: a material production: folk celebrations, food, cloths, work of arts, architectural structures and tools; a system of relations and communication: symbols, humanitarian acts, art as appreciation, language, technology, science and ritual; and, a system of values or ideology: values, beliefs, norms and punishment, and social organizations and political system. (Millán, 2000) ⁷

 

Any immigrant knows what it means to live in another territory, but especially if there is a different culture. So, they need to minimize the cultural shock or reach a smooth integration. They need to come to a feeling and sense of belonging to the area where they settle. It is a place where they feel at “home”. How can they build that? In a neighborhood with an important quantity of people that speak, cook and can shop using their mother language and way of doing things, as stated at UKEssay (2018) ⁸:

 

“Many new immigrants undergo multiple processes and tensions when they migrate to a new country. They usually must deal with the difficulties of adapting to a new spatial geography, new institutions, new people, new cultural norms, and much more. One important way in which new immigrants ease their integration process is by using cultural practices as ways retain their cultural identity whilst also building networks with other immigrants in Canada. Cultural food is essential to our sense of identity because its unique to each culture and therefore, losing traditional culinary practices is paralleled with losing ties with culture, community, and even religion”. 

 

Later on, this same author affirms that there is a sense of unity, identity and belonging that reinforce social inclusion. These feelings are an open door to newcomers from the similar or close areas, could be countries or continents, they start to develop closeness on the new place to their hometowns, which, as well, help them to feel a welcome and enhance their self-esteem. Those new neighbors play an important role on building their network, one valuable tool for knowing the new ways of doing things, combat insolation and reduce the fear that they face in the new country (UKEssay, 2018) ⁸. 

 

Although the author stresses on food, all the aspects are intertwined, everyone is important and a change, positive or negative, in one of them affects the rest. And he also expressed how meaningful it is for human beings to be part of a group close to the values you have grown up with, exclusively when you have moved away from your hometown, it is less traumatic.

 

As we can see those places reproduce part of their culture, those three elements that their worldvision have: a material production, a system of relations and communication and a system of values or ideology. It is a mixture of them with close one and with new from the Canadian culture. It is a new paradigm that is shaping their life in the host county, which is changing along with their settlement, for example, their mother language will be “spiced” with English or French terms.

 

Those are significant reasons for local governments to make an effort on keeping ethnic communities as close as possible, encourage the creation of new ones and address gentrification based on reducing social impact as their main goal. Otherwise, newcomers are compelled to not have a home, to make their integration a sloped route. In a few words, destroying the hub of ethnic communities provoke poor integration, as the next quote said:

“Increasing rent costs and lack of affordable housing caused by gentrification also threatens immigrant newcomers’ ability to remain in inner cities because they usually have low incomes and cannot yet afford to move to the suburbs as many do once they are properly integrated in the social and labour markets. Murdie & Teixeria (2011) argue that in Toronto, many newcomers are forced to relocate to old high-rise buildings that are usually lacking basic services and are impoverished." (UKEssay, 2018) ⁸ 

One important reason for those newcomers to attempt to live in the cities is related to access to good services, as previously said above. Due to that this same author (UKEssay, 2018) ⁸ stated that, not only the recent immigrants but the established as well. Inner cities have better transportation, job offers, more diversity of amenities, and especially because building a social network, an important "tool" for getting a job or knowing how to attend to any necessity as how and where to get in contact with government assistance. 

 

Thus, cultural integration could be ameliorated if people got the feeling that not everything is new, that they do have some attachment to its past. Those neighborhoods where they have a sense of home pave the way to a better welcome to Canada. This is one of the reasons why local governments should promote the creation of those areas and once established to remain as long as possible.  We know that some places become icons or even city architecture heritage.

 

So far, we have seen that cultural bonds in the host country are crucial for livelihood, but why is home important? In the book Human Scale Development: An Option for the Future (Max-Neef et al, 1989) ⁹ we found the answer: shelter is one of the most valuable issues for human beings. At the Matrix of needs and satisfiers, the first box is Subsistence (needs according to axiological category) and at the intersection with Having (needs according to existential category) roof is there. And we know from our own experience, we always desire a place where we feel at home.

 

Also, we have seen that there exist some elements which can be used for naming the newcomers vulnerable people, that even the Canadian government recognizes as such; but I will make a deeper explanation of this argument. The first thing that I have to recall is that people are considered newcomers when they have up to 5 years of residency in Canada, according to government.

 

A study made by the Canada Revenue Agency (2019) ¹⁰ exposed that newcomers are vulnerable when dealing with several factors, where they include taxes, it could be for filing the income and/or receiving benefits due to the lack of experience, which mentioned, non-explicitly, they unknown the rules and law, so it is not only the cultural barriers as language but other bureaucratic formalities to a full integration.

 

 And the National Housing Strategy (2018) ¹¹ defined 12 groups of vulnerable people:

     “In the case of the National Housing Strategy, priority vulnerable groups are currently defined to             include survivors (especially women and children) fleeing domestic violence; seniors; Indigenous         peoples; people with disabilities; those dealing with mental health and addiction issues; veterans;         LGBTQ2+; racialized groups; newcomers (including refugees); individuals and families                         experiencing homelessness; and young adults.” 

They do not include large families which are a group with difficulties to find an affordable house. It is a fact that many numerous families, with some frequency among some newcomers, have difficulties to find a place to live, one of the reasons is that landlords do not want them, another is the rent is so high that they have to live in small places poor in quality and crowded, and on top of that they can not be assumed themselves as homeless. Those are needs that did not appear on the statistic or studies, and they have to manage their living with no assistance (Preisler, 2021) ¹².

Or as the same author said later in her essay:

    “'Canada is not exempt from racist and colonialist regulations and practices' that impact newcomers        (Springer, 2021, n.p.) Housing policies and attitudes in Canada create barriers for racialized                    newcomers that include housing conditions, affordability, stability, safety, and security of tenure.            Many Canadian immigrants often have experiences that are surrounded by feelings of isolation,            anxiety, and fear, especially those who face discrimination.” (Preisler, 2021) ¹². 

A study made by the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR, 2022) ¹³ stated that on average, newcomers who are looking for a rental home face 11 times more discrimination when we compare them to non-newcomers. There was other data which showed that if the people were female with a child, in other words, gender discrimination. Thus, there is several types of segregation for newcomers.

Another barrier that newcomers must face is to earn enough money to pay rent. To enter the job marked on their previous experience is a hard task, there is an implicit norm or way of exclusion, many employers ask for Canadian experience or Canada studies in the field they want to work, for example a focus group made in Kelowna, British Columbia exposed that most of immigrants started working full time upon arrival to Canada, but from 34 participants, 29 were working a low-paying blue-collar job (Preisler, 2021) ¹². So, newcomers normally have two ways of getting it, either they should study in Canada or give up and start in blue-collar professions as skilled trades, for example. Probably the worst is what is called regulated professions, where newcomers almost have to start from zero in their studies, in spite of having a long experience in their area. Hopefully there are some ways of entry to the work market as professional, for example those short-term studies like bridging programs.

Racism, in spite of the government laws and norms, works in a subtle way. In other words, there is still  implicit racist behavior on some of the individuals and even corporations which makes newcomers a stiff integration. 

 

But there is good news, as time goes by, newcomers improve their integration, especially their income should be closer to Canadian people, and their pressure for paying rent decreases or even the desire to buy a house appear in the map.  According to the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC), There are four key areas of settlement and integration that are focused on: finding employment, getting education, accessing health care and finding housing, for example the study showed that after six months 50%  suffer those problems, then, go down to 40% after two years, and reach 29% when they have lived fourth year in Canada. Sunny Preisler (2021) ¹².

 

In general, I can affirm that newcomers have to deal with so many obstacles, that is the reason they are considered vulnerable people, plus, they are victims of scammers, greedy landlords and/or real estate agents which could make them crack their mental health.

 

I want now to specify what happens when gentrification and culture “meet”. The first thing I can affirm is that there is a clash between them. There are two main aspects: economic and sociocultural.

 

In terms of economics, one side is this localized inflation that is too high for newcomers to pay rent, but also to buy a house.

 

Socioculturally, there is a compulsory process of assimilation, not integration. Gentrification broke apart a community; if it is an ethnic one, newcomers have harder times to get a sense of identity with their new territory. So, immigrants live a process of trauma, in many cases, and they are forced toward homogenization, which is a global trend (Said, 2021) ¹³. Briefly, their Human Rights are violated.

 

Government policies

For sure we might ask ourselves what is the government doing about the issue I am dealing with? In this section I will try to resume the last policies related to housing, because there have been many changes along the way.

 

For many years it looked like it supported real estate growth and gentrification, at the expense of vulnerable people, among them the newcomers, as I have shown before. The housing market acted by its own rules, and created a huge gap between the have and poor which the government tried recently to address.

 

Now, there seems to be a change in the approach to this problem, especially since an issued plan in March 2022. We also know by experience that changes within government take time, there is long negotiation and synchronization among the different departments behind them.

 

Since November 22, 2017, there have been some warm changes, for example, the Canadian federal government announced a 10-year plan called the National Housing Strategy (NHS). Some of its assertions are: 

    "(...) every Canadian deserves both safe and affordable housing; housing programs need to align with     public investments in creating jobs, learning skills, transit, healthcare, and culture and recreation; and     that successful housing policies require transparent and accountable partnerships between all levels        of government, social and private sectors, and the people who have lived experience of housing need     (National Housing Strategy, 2018a, p. 5).” (Preisler) ¹²

 

That is from the Federal government side, but the City of Toronto (City of Toronto, 2022a) ¹⁵ as well has tried to address it, as we can see below, although recently. The municipality developed the Official Plan housing policies, which tried to address the better way for making them affordable for the tenants that need to rent them by stopping demolition and/or conversion and made secure threat houses.

 

The Plan (City of Toronto, 2022b) ¹⁶ set clear that it would stress on negotiation among stakeholders. Then, any city-building should change after public debate and agreement about the social, economic and environmental, positive and negative impacts on the developed area. However, they are aware that cities change, and the best outcome is achieved by not just new buildings or houses, reaching agreements, but also taking steps towards an aesthetic design and describing clearly the roles of each stakeholder. The City “(...) must be beautiful, vibrant, safe and inclusive. (...)” (City of Toronto, 2022b) ¹⁶. With that in mind they stated that individual private and public developments should work hand by hand to create the best mix of the whole mentioned ingredients.

 

The Plan took in account many requests from several stakeholders, especially in relation to the sociocultural impact of gentrification, that is the reason why the public realm’s aim has an interesting approach.

“The public realm will:

b) foster complete, well-connected walkable communities and employment areas that meet the daily needs of people and support a mix of activities;

c) support active transportation and public transit use;

d) provide a comfortable, attractive and vibrant, safe and accessible setting for civic life and daily social interaction;

e) contribute to the identity and physical character of the City and its neighbourhoods; (...)" (City of Toronto, 2022b) ¹⁶

The above tell us a shift from allowing the investor and banks, especially, to state a framework for housing development, but taking in account the more needed ones. It attempts to tackle the City's future thinking on inclusion of everybody. 

 

The lack of space is a huge barrier to overcome, so there is a need to use and rezoning some of them. Toronto has few free spaces, which could be considered for building both new houses or condos.Then, any new development would need to be done in already used sites, for that reason they must respect and improve the legislation and profile of the surrounding area. Therefore, those new construction will be done, mostly, in the Downtown, the Centers, and along the Avenues. Any other area, where the physical conditions are no longer appropriate, will require new planning where the public realm is a priority, said the norm. (City of Toronto, 2022b) ¹⁶

 

The heads of the City know and encourages participation, the more the stakeholders are engaged, the better the outcomes and identification of them with Toronto. That is why they stated that “Strong communities are the foundation of a healthy city.", because "(...) Vibrant and healthy communities are a defining element of the human ecology of a city (...)" (City of Toronto, 2022b) ¹⁶

 

We can infer, from the previously said that the quoted Toronto plan’s targets are not only a participatory, aesthetically beautiful city but also an inclusive city for everyone, sociocultural diversity is a good sign of a healthy city. Which means adequate and affordable housing and trying to keep the cultural diversity as much as possible are part of the most important City goals. (City of Toronto, 2022b) 16

 

As a conclusion they pinpoint four areas:

“We need to address four areas:

·         Stimulating production of new private sector rental housing supply. All levels of government need to do all they can to create a business environment in which private rental housing, especially at affordable and mid-range rents, is an attractive investment. (…)

·         Preserving what we have as long as there is insufficient new supply to meet the demand for rental housing, our existing stock of affordable rental housing is an asset that must be preserved. (…)

·         Making efficient and effective use of the City’s own housing resources to achieve a range of housing objectives The private sector cannot meet the housing needs of our most vulnerable populations or those in need of rent-geared-to-income housing. (…)

·         Working in partnership to take advantage of emerging opportunities Addressing many of the City’s housing challenges will require working in partnership with the other levels of government as well as the private and non-profit sectors. (…)” (City of Toronto, 2022b) ¹⁶

 

If we have dudes about how deep this crisis is, the following data shows us what is going on in housing. The author said his sources are City of Toronto numbers. According to an article written by Joy Connelly (Connelly, 2022) ¹⁷ around half of tenants have problems with the rent expenses. Those numbers increase nearly 10 percent higher when they are Black and/or racialized households. the City of Toronto data shows that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in 2021 was $1,661. But the astonishing numbers are related to the homeless population, on August was over 9,700 people. This last statistic has had a surprising rise since the City start counting the homeless people on 2006 (5,052), which, again, show us how deep is the housing crisis.

 

As a partial resume I can express it is a hot issue which the City has taken a long time to tackle. It was in 2019 when it had its first approach to housing as a Human Rights. Just later, until this last plan in terms of housing which has caused some slowdown of pricing, even some people and organizations mentioned a fall in the values of houses and condos. There is still a lot to do.

 

Something that brought my attention to this plan was that if we look at the arrangement of sections, we could see that the urban plan, the setup of the city, was the first priority, the social aspect was almost the last one. But I can deny that it was an appropriate approach to this problem.

 

From the last quote we could see that vulnerable people have been the one that suffer the most. As it was mentioned by the last quoted author there is a 10 % of less affordability for lower sectors to buy a house, and that even rent has been a salary vacuum for those people.

 

Non-Profit sector

Now let's see how the non-profit sector addresses the gentrification and housing subjects. There are three types of organization or areas where some of them stress their efforts: the first group are those that are politically active. They research on the problems, suggest action to be taken by the government, and/or lobbying on this subject.

 

The second group are those that manage shelter or subsidized houses (rent-geared-to-income). Their role is to be an intermediate point between the homeless or vulnerable people that need a place to shelter (normally temporary) and a more permanent place to rent a place.

The third group is the Community Services (CS), which has a mission to help the integration of newcomers. They, as well, could be subdivided in two: one that assumes settlement in general and housing as one of their action areas and others which work specifically with housing as a subject.

 

In this section I will use two sources, one comes from information accessible online, Non-profit organization in general and, when I will refer to Community Services, they originated from two interview and web pages of the organizations those people work with: Lizeth Teran (LT) from Mennonite New Life Center (MNLCT) and Shirley Cespedes (SC) from The Housing Help Centre (THHCT). The first one provides settlement service for newcomers and housing as one of them; normally they refer their clients to specialized Community Services. The second concentrates in housing, although they offer some other issues, such as helping to file income tax, for example.

 

There are several groups that their main objectives are fighting for housing as a political issue in Toronto, for example Right to Housing in Toronto ¹⁸ has four policies recommendations for the local government:

•    “Implement the Office of the Housing Commissioner to advise the City on how to meet its human rights obligations, and to address systemic issues that lead to homelessness and violations of the right to housing within the shelter system.

•    Ensure that the City’s shelter services, programs and policies are in alignment with advancing human rights and the right to housing.

•    Meaningfully engage shelter residents in planning, reviewing and the decision-making processes to ensure that shelters are responsive to the diverse needs of all residents.

•    Dedicate the maximum of the City’s available resources to provide safe, adequate and dignified housing options to residents who use the shelter system or experience homelessness.” ¹⁶

 

Those organizations are the ones that lead some action on the issue of this essay, but there is another group that acts as an operator of policies, and does not “complain” about them.

 

 

MNLCT has as its mission “(…) to facilitate newcomer settlement and integration through holistic services and community engagement, carried out within a gender justice and anti-oppression framework.” (2022) ¹⁹ As I said before, it has a broad spectrum of services and housing is only one of them, but with limited action, most of their cases are referred to other CS. While THHCT stated: “The Housing Help Centre can help you get settled in Toronto and York Region if you’re a sponsored immigrant, a permanent resident, or a refugee. We can help you find market rent or subsidized housing in the Greater Toronto Area through one-on-one counselling to determine your needs.” (2022) ²⁰ As you can perceive the last one has housing as the main subject.

 

When any individual gets in touch with them, the first step is asking their status: Canadian citizen or newcomers (Permanent Resident, asylum, refugee, student or irregular). At this point we find a first filter, there are several Community Services that offer services to them, some of them are restricted by their fund’s origins, those in irregular status have limited help or places where to ask. In this essay I will talk about the ones that help PR newcomers.

The second step is that they have to ask for needs’ assessment. From this on, it relies on the specificities of each client. For example at THHCT about their help to a newcomer they stated on their web site that there is an assessment to every client which guide them to customized a settlement plan; secondly, they help newcomers to understand life in Canada; third, they explain everything relate to housing as subsidized housing applications, market rental listings, and other housing issues; fourth, with applications for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP) and the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP); and there are other subjects as OHIP, Ontario Works and so on. On the specific housing issues they give information about Subsidized (or rent-geared-to-income) and market rent housing in the City of Toronto and York Region; Rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords; among other themes close or not to housing but including their integration to Canada as labor market, for example (2022)²⁰.

In my talk with their staff members, they confirmed those steps and gave me more detail of that information.

 

Lizeth and Shirley told me that they have a list of low rent apartment and house, if the newcomer has not enough money for the last month paid in advance there is government help for it, if there is a language barrier, they can help up to certain point by acting as a bridge (they do not participate at the transaction itself, but make the arrangement for it), if clients do not have house furniture there are places where they can apply for free, for example. Even so, there are some obstacles that face many newcomers: to have at least six months credit history, a renting history, at least two months of pay stub, and references.

 

Then, I asked what they as settlement workers will change in order to improve the services. LT said that what she thinks is the major constraint is they can help much on the action they might do, the best way for helping newcomers is by their rights’ advocacy but it must be done by Community Services as a group.

 

SC mentioned that their action is restricted to the area where they are located, for example, she works at Scarborough, ON, due to it, she can only help people that want to move to that Toronto’s district. Therefore, she thinks it would help to open up to any GTA district.

 

Another point she mentioned was that there are no steps taken so far: a group of the students have problems finding a place to live, the request for a house on campus has outnumbered availability and they as an organization cannot do anything for them. They are in a limbo state. In a recent newspaper article that issue was clearly expressed: “It was a terrible time to be looking for a place: thousands of other students were returning to in-person learning, and rent prices were soaring.” (Mohamed, 2022) ²¹

 

She tried to look for answers and reasons for her failure and realized she couldn’t compete with more working professionals with a bigger income at hand. So, students have to get into a "bidding war for a place" (Mohamed,2022) ²¹ where landlords normally consider students as the tip of the tail.

 

At the end she made an intriguing statement that newcomer know for sure: one of the most pivotal backings is social network that they do not have and, as mentioned above, student are helpless from the government side, and if we add language barrier and low income to find a settlement place is an impossible mission (Mohamed, 2022) ²¹.

From the above remarks I can affirm in this hot topic the role of CS is restricted, or better said: passive, which place them on a soggy soil: do they renounce to one of their main goals which is to help people, especially newcomers, on the integration to Canada and/or the normal economical path?  Or do they advocate for a better integration system where housing is one of the main topics to deal with?

Conclusions

I have approached a controversial affair which the municipal government has taken a long time to answer what the newcomers and a numerous people has risen their hand for. The latter means the government has allowed the market to act freely. Experience has taught us that the market has its pros and cons, the main cons: it spreads inequality and never could correct it.

It was in 2019 when the local council took its first steps toward recognizing housing as a vital human right. Its policies have been closer to laissez faire, thinking more in the economic aspect (gains) rather than the social problem that it was accumulated. I mentioned that gentrification ran freely and the different government levels approach was to put out a fire with gasoline, they put more money on the hands of people or allow mortgage to grow which has as result inflation. One of the main reasons for soaring prices and inflation is to put more money on the market, it is to attack the demand side and not touch the supply one; so, if policies are to give money to buy a house or pay the two first payments of rent are you acting in the right direction? The answer is no. That was how the government acted.

Lately there have been some new turning points, for example, a group of tenant neighbors win the right to keep still at their home (2022) ²². This fresh air will mark a jurisprudence for those people that are fighting pro gentrification landlords. Some real estate watchdogs have said that the increased mortgage rate has slowed housing’s rising prices, which it has seen this year, and even others, as banks, said that it could go lower, for example, these articles: Better Dwelling (2022) ²³ or Global News (2022) ²⁴, among others.

 

This problem has been so grave that one of the main issues on the table for most of candidates have been housing just because on October there was election time, as we could see in this article which its head title explained for itself: ‘Nobody is in favour of those people’: The Toronto neighbourhood where the housing crisis has become an election flashpoint (Rider, 2022) ²⁵. I can say that it is not only in that neighborhood, as we read other sources like: Isabel Inclan (2022) ²⁶, or Joy Connelly (2022) ¹⁷.

 

 

On the other hand, culture homogenization has been a fast-ridden car trend fed by new technology, gentrification aided it, it disrupted long life neighborhoods and broke them apart. This process, as I have pointed before, created a crash in culture's diversity, where the more affected have been lower income and vulnerable people. The newcomers, beside their cultural shock for landing in a new place, found it harder to integrate when one of the main or basic human needs as housing is so rigorous to cope with.

 

Although Culture is elastic, normally its members try to return to the original state, but that is not possible, once you leave the womb you never can go back to it. Then, newcomers experience a cultural limbo, they are neither part of where their culture values are predominated nor they belong to the new one, it is little by little they would build bridges, the less traumatic it is the better. Newcomers need attachment to their original values, which the Canadian government is promoting throughout several policies, and especially they need a home, that so far Canada has not accomplished the best in order to reach this goal.

 

Now, there are CS which try to pave this difficult transition. They try their best, but the external locus, like housing, has been hard to totally grasp.

 

My feeling is that they can’t be only passive actors, that Community Services can help to prevent pushing out people because of their engagement with their neighborhood. Thus, the main inquiry is: can they go beyond information about the rent market as the main duties on housing?

 

Though I know their limits, I think there is still room to play based on their engagement with newcomers and community. It is here where creativity enter the game!!

 

So, I would suggest two different areas of actions: Individual and alliance.  CS could take some steps in this regard. As an “individual” you can do some advocacy for newcomers and/or promote or help on engaging as newcomers pressure groups. In other words, empower the newcomers as a political force that can make pressure for changing on housing. issues. On the other hand, in “alliance” with others CS. This latter could be achieved through a new organization or adhere to existing one, those more politically active.

 

In Spanish there is a saying which states: “Dogs do not bite the owner of the hand that feeds them”. Community Services depends basically from government funds, then, the question is how can CS not help an acute problem that many of their clients suffer, or in other words, how can CS avoid accomplishing one of their main goals: to help newcomers to settle in Canada without being punished by the hand that feeds them? I can deny it is a difficult answer or answers or better said, it is hard to take action that does not involve the governmental political issues and at the same time to achieve their goals.

 

There are steps to follow by newcomers and CS staff such as the ones named by J. Connelly (2022) ¹⁷: "Commit to advocating for the human right to housing in Toronto, and Vote! It’s the surest way to make your voice count. And then watch to make sure your elected representatives keep their promises.”

 

It is an immigrant with urban planning experience who has risen the housing issue as one of the most important for the Torontonian forthcoming: “Over the last eight years, Toronto has become “less equitable, less sustainable, and it has lost its sense of unity,” Penalosa said. ‘The city is falling apart, and leadership is standing by and watching"” (Inclan, 2022) ²⁶. He affirmed that this direction is not the right direction, due to it we need an immediate change. Two worldwide trends (the climate change and the pandemic) have shown us that we are arriving at a negative turning point where a switch is imminent, that Toronto must look for an affordable, equitable, and sustainable city.

 

Data from the government point out that a big chunk of Toronto’s population was born outside the city, and plans to increase the number of immigrants is a political goal, so it is time that most of the organization gather and make pressure for a change, especially on housing policies.

A statement by Gil Penalosa made an actual photograph of immigrants and what they have to face it:

“We immigrants arrived here leaving behind families and friends, but we face a lot of barriers, such as bureaucracy or lack of recognition of foreign credentials. We need nurses but they are working in restaurants. We need professors, but they are cleaning floors. This is bad for the city because it wastes and underuses its assets.” (Inclan, 2022) ²⁶ And on top of that there is not a shelter that could have that warm and safe feeling of a hearth.

Therefore, Community Services could not only help or assist, empower newcomers on finding a house, but to empower them to become politically engaged in housing policies.

It is also a time for changes in CS roles!! 

 

Notes and References

* Although cities like Toronto is a settlement place for people from other Canadian towns and cities, as well as foreigners from other countries, which we can call newcomers, in this essay I will restrict this concept to the latter one: people from other nations, like it is used by the government, the academia and organizations in general.

** While investment was roughly equally split between renovations and new home construction in 2021, renovations have contributed slightly more to economic activity in the five‐year period between 2016 and 2021.      

 

¹ (2022). Gentrification. Britannica Dictionary. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/gentrify#:~:text=Britannica%20Dictionary%20definition%20of%20GENTRIFY,to%20people%20who%20have%20money Reviewed on September 17, 2022.

² Sobhan-Sarbandi, Ghazal (2018) Critical Analysis of Gentrification in South Parkdale. Landmarks, The undergraduate geographical Journal. Volume four. https://landmarksjournal.geog.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Sobhan-Sarbandi-2018-Gentrification-Parkdale.pdf . 

³ BILD and Altus Group Economic Consulting (2022) The Construction Industry Driving Economic Recovery. March 22. https://www.bildgta.ca/Assets/misc/BILD%20-%20Construction%20Industry%20Driving%20Economic%20Recovery%20-%20March%2022%202022.pdf

⁴ Ragan, Jenny (2022, July 28) An Up-Close Look at Toronto’s Construction Boom.  https://constructionblog.autodesk.com/toronto-construction/

⁵ Pasalis, John (2021, July 16) Does Toronto Have a Supply or Demand Problem?  https://www.movesmartly.com/articles/should-you-buy-a-home-in-torontos-overheated-market-0-0

⁶ Orrell, David (2021) Money, Magic, and how to dismantle a financial bomb. Quantum economics for the real world. Icon Books Ltd.

⁷ Austin Millán, Tomás R. (2000) Para Comprender el Concepto de Cultura. UNAP Educación y Desarrollo, Año 1, Nº 1, Marzo. Universidad Arturo Prat, Sede Victoria, Chile. Retrieved from https://nanopdf.com/download/para-comprender-el-concepto-de-cultura_pdf Translation by the author. Reviewed on January 12, 2009.

⁸ UKEssays. (2018, November). Toronto’s Little India: Integration and Gentrification.  https://www.ukessays.com/essays/society/torontos-little-india-integration-and-gentrification.php?vref=1

⁹ Manfred Max-Neef, Antonio Elizalde, Martin Hopenhayn et al. (1989) Human Scale Development: An Option for the Future. Development Dialogue 1.  http://www.daghammarskjold.se/wp-content/uploads/1989/05/89_1.pdf

¹⁰ Canada Revenue Agency (2019, August) Ethnography of vulnerable newcomers' experiences with taxes and benefits.  

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/corporate-reports-information/ethnography-vulnerable-newcomers-experiences.html

¹¹ National Housing Strategy. (2018, April). The National Housing Strategy Glossary of Common Terms. https://eppdscrmssa01.blob.core.windows.net/cmhcprodcontainer/files/pdf/glossary/nhs-glossary-en.pdf

¹² Preisler, S. (2021). The Vulnerability of Newcomers (Including Refugees) in the Canadian Housing Sector (Student Rep. No. 4). Community Housing Canada. https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/6b99aeb6-9f6c-4caa-b998-b6416d09b63e

¹³ Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (2022, November) “Sorry, it’ s rented.” Measuring Discrimination Against Newcomers in Toronto’s Rental Housing Market.

https://housingrightscanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CCHR-Sorry-its-rented-Discrimination-Audit-2022.pdf

14 Said, Rawsab (2021, March 11) Is Globalization Leading to Homogenized Global Culture. Counter Currents.org. https://countercurrents.org/2021/11/is-globalization-leading-to-a-homogenized-global-culture/

¹⁵ City of Toronto (2022a) Housing.  

https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/housing/

¹⁶ City of Toronto (2022b) Toronto Official Plan Office Consolidation - March 2022 - Chapter 3.   https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/981f-cp-official-plan-chapter-3.pdf

¹⁷ Connelly, Joy (2022, October 9) Rents are unaffordable and homelessness is growing. Here’s how to help get Toronto’s house in order. Toronto Star.  https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/10/09/rents-are-unaffordable-and-homelessness-is-growing-heres-how-to-help-get-torontos-house-in-order.html

¹⁸ Right to Housing in Toronto (2022) How to uphold the right to housing in Toronto’s Shelter System. https://right2housingto.ca/reports/shelter-rights-review-recommendations/

¹⁹ Mennonite New Life Center (2022) About Us. https://mnlct.org/about-us/

²⁰ The Housing Help Center (2022) Newcomers. https://www.shhc.ca/newcomers

²¹ Mohamed, Alysha (2022, October 11) Finding student housing in Toronto seemed impossible. Getting scammed didn't help. MacLean’s.

 https://www.macleans.ca/society/finding-student-housing-in-toronto-seemed-impossible-getting-scammed-didnt-help/

²² Miller, Mira (2022, September 22) People in Toronto win the right to stay at their home after five-years eviction battle. Blogto. https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2022/09/people-toronto-win-right-to-stay-five-year-eviction/

²³ Better Dwelling (2022, October 11) Canadian Real Estate Markets Up To 76% Overvalued, Correction Through 2023: BMO. https://betterdwelling.com/canadian-real-estate-markets-up-to-76-overvalued-correction-through-2023-bmo/

²⁴ Gordon, Julie (2022, September 29) Canadian home prices may drop further as affordability gap widens: PBO. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/9165256/canadian-home-prices-affordability-gap-pbo/

²⁵ Rider, David (2022, September 26) ‘Nobody is in favour of those people’: The Toronto neighbourhood where the housing crisis has become an election flashpoint. Toronto Star.  https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/09/26/nobody-is-in-favour-of-those-people-the-toronto-neighbourhood-where-the-housing-crisis-has-become-an-election-flashpoint.html

²⁶ Inclan, Isabel (2022, October 12) ‘Latin American power’ running for Toronto City Council.  https://newcanadianmedia.ca/latin-american-power-on-the-run-to-renew-the-toronto-council/?doing_wp_cron=1665767040.6345400810241699218750&utm_source=NCM+-+General+Audience&utm_campaign=849af86a97-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_02_26_10_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8748041f15-849af86a97-531801897