Spacing and the Balanced Supply of Housing research node proudly present The Overhead: Understanding Canada’s Affordable Housing Crisis, a special podcast series.

THIS EPISODE: Non-market housing solutions

For many housing advocates, part of the solution to providing affordable housing is removing housing from the volatile market. This means finding ways to secure housing ensuring it won't be sold, flipped, or inflated in price. It's something the Better Supply of Housing research node has been examining, as part of a holistic approach to the housing crisis.

Cliff Grant is director of strategic relations at the Aboriginal Housing Management Association in British Columbia, and says non-market housing is part of a that organization's recently published "Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy":

“We're working on both fronts. One, the strategy to maintain current assets, and two, then looking at the data — a lot of which comes out of the municipality's housing needs assessment.”

In Toronto, the Kensington Market Community Land Trust was able to buying a mixed-use building in that area, with the help of the City and donors, including a number of housing units, for the express purpose of maintaining them as affordable rental. Chiyi Tam, Dominique Russell, and Kevin Barrett all spoke on behalf of the land trust, explaining the significance of taking those units off the market. Dominique says:

“Ultimately, it is the best investment for our collective tax dollars to invest in affordability that is forever in the community. The alternative is to invest, short term, in the interest of a few.”

What is the role of non-market housing in addressing the housing crisis?

Listen here for The Overhead:

The Overhead: Non-market housing solutions

The housing market is one everyone's minds these days. It determines who can live where, who can afford to buy a home, or even afford rent. It keeps some people in poverty, while making a small few incredibly rich. Is there a way governments, at various levels, can help bring some stability to an unstable market?

To begin our discussion, we speak to University of British Columbia associate professor Thomas Davidoff, director of the Centre for Economics and Real Estate, who co-authored a revealing study about laneway houses in Vancouver:

“Neighbourhoods that have relatively low prices (and of course it's relative in the City of Vancouver), so the east side of Vancouver, there doesn't seem to be any adverse effect on neighbouring property values. But the effect is bigger on the order of 5 to 7% in the more affluent neighbourhoods.”

On the other side of the country, in Montreal, we talk to McGill University associate professor David Wachsmuth about the outsized influence short term rentals such as AirBnB have on rent prices, and what governments can do to rein thing in.

“AirBnb — now more so than in the past, thankfully — they have some interest in being regarded as a cooperative corporate citizen. So if particularly provinces where the real power here is, they've got a lot of carrots and they've got a lot of sticks, and it's simply just a question of deciding to make this a priority.”

What can these two examples teach us about shaping the housing market and improving affordability?

The Overhead: Fixing the housing market

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series.

THIS EPISODE: Digital Placemaking

Data and technology allow placemakers to experiment with new ways of measuring, designing, and most importantly engaging with the people they are designing public space for. Ideally, digital placemaking empowers everyone to shape the spaces they use, love, and rely on.

Farhaan Ladhani is co-founder and CEO of Digital Public Square, an organization who's ethos is "healthy communities enabled by good technology." Farhaan explains how digital placemaking can help create ideal public spaces for a wide variety of people:

“Thinking about the way in which these tools can be used to foster engagement in the community can be really useful for all sorts of things, from consultation, through to participation on decision making, through to the provision of information.”

The Future Fix: Digital Placemaking

We're back for 2023, and there is... a lot to catch up on.

To begin, Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter for The Narwhal, guides us through Doug Ford's Greenbelt plan. What will the long term effects be? Who stands to benefit? Did certain developers catch wind of the changes to land that was formerly protected?

Then, Ontario Place for All co-founder Norm Di Pasquale tells us about the growing criticism of plans to turn Ontario Place into a privatized tourist destination.

Episode 069: Worst Case Ontario

Now that John Tory has officially stepped down as mayor, the field of candidates hoping to replace him is a big one. With roughly 50 candidates on the ballot so far, there's a lot to make sense of.

To help weigh the merits of some of the major candidates, and the ideas proposed so far, we talk to Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc and Toronto Metropolitan University Associate Professor Cheryl Thompson about what stands out in the race so far.

And the new Spacing Magazine is available now, and it's all about the Ontario Line — the new subway meant to connect the downtown to the northeast of the city. Civil engineer and University of Toronto Associate Professor Shoshanna Saxe tells us about her latest Spacing contribution about how to get the most value-for-money from the new subway line.

Episode 70: Toronto Mayoral Election Redux

We meet Globe & Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic in the new Love Park on Toronto's waterfront, to talk about good public space design, bad maintenance practices, and the legacy of legendary landscape architect Claude Cormier.

We talk to playwright Michael Healey about "The Master Plan," a play about the doomed futuristic neighbourhood Google and Waterfront Toronto tried to build on the lakeshore.

And, as a preview of our latest Spacing issue "Once Upon a Time in Toronto," we talk to author/playwright/screenwriter Catherine Hernandez about why she writes about Scarborough, and the pain of having to leave the neighbourhood that inspires you.

Episode 73: Love Park and Love Letters

Spacing is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary.

To celebrate, we talk to publisher Matthew Blackett and senior editor Dylan Reid about how the magazine came together, the latest issue and anniversary book The Big Book of Spacing, and our special exhibit at the Urbanspace Gallery.

And, at the same time the magazine began, David Miller had just become mayor of Toronto on a platform of change and urbanist principles. We ask him about Spacing's impact at City Hall, and how urban thinking has changed in the city in two decades.

Episode 74: 20 Years of Spacing

Wildfire season has already begun in Canada. Due to climate change, we are seeing more frequent and devastating fires. They choke the air, the decimate the landscape, and they displace people from their homes. So we have to fight them with everything we've got.

Neal McLoughlin is superintendent of the Predictive Services Unit at BC Wildfire Service. He tells us how AI and drone technology is helping to monitor, fight, and prevent forest fires.

And Moulay Akhloufi is a professor at the University of Moncton, where he heads their Perception, Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab. He tells us how his team has been exploring every avenue available to detect wildfires, and predict how they'll spread. That includes video games.

The Future FIx: Fighting Wildfires With Drones and Video Games

Toronto is often accused of being over-regulated. It's a fair criticism.

For example, photographer and urbanist commentator Dan Seljak tells us how he stumbled upon the small Finch Store selling espresso, fighting to stay open in the face of City zoning laws.

For more of the story, and how Finch Store was granted a reprieve, we speak to local City Councillor Alejandra Bravo.

And we speak to Councillor Gord Perks, chair of the Planning and Housing Committee, about why Toronto works on complaints-based bylaw enforcement, and how we can improve the system for small businesses, special events, and more.

Episode 79: Is Toronto strangled by rules?

We heard a lot about drones at the Paris Olympics, but what about in our own backyard?

In this episode, Spacing's John Lorinc tells us about a piece he wrote called Eyes in the Sky, which documents the stealthy creep of the Toronto Police Service's use of drones to keep tabs on residents.

Next, author and green advocate Lorraine Johnson tells us about an open letter she co-signed urging Canadian municipalities to change their outdated bylaws which prohibit growing habit gardens and other helpful plant species in our lawns and backyards.

Finaly, Ingrid Buday founded No More Noise Toronto out of frustration with the city's high-volume noise pollution, especially traffic sounds. The group advocates for new bylaws protecting residents' right to peace and quiet, and gathers its own data to make the case.

Episode 80: Toronto's Drone Scandal

It's been a while since we had a good, old-fashioned transit talk with friends of the show Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing contributor) and Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter).

We talk about returning TTC service levels to pre-pandemic levels, what we should look for in the next TTC CEO, what is even happening with the Eglinton Crosstown, and Doug Ford's transit expansion plans.

Episode 81: Talking Transit '24

This month, we respond to Doug Ford's stated plan of banning new bike lanes in Ontario municipalities and building an underground highway from Markham to Scarborough.

Then we speak to environmental lawyer and cycling advocate Albert Koehl about his book Wheeling Through Toronto: a history of the bicycle and its riders. We talk about how attitudes towards cyclists have changed over time, or even repeated themselves.

Finally, we talk to transportation consultant and former TTC Chair Adam Giambrone about the need for a culture change at Toronto's transportation commission.

Episode 82: Toronto's political gridlock

We're pleased to bring you another season of The Overhead, and we begin by checking back on a topic we've been tracking from the start: community land trusts.

This time, we're focusing specifically on the "community" aspect of land trusts. We've spoken about the benefits of removing certain land from the market, preserving it as affordable housing in perpetuity. But how do land trusts help longstanding cultural communities so they can continue to call their neigbourhoods home?

We see different communities turning to land trust model as a way to avoid displacement, or reassert cultural ownership over land they've traditionally called home: in the traditionally Black neighbourhoods of Hogan's Alley in Vancouver and Africville in Halifax, or in Toronto's Chinatown.

To answer this, we spoke to Nat Pace, network director of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts, and Chiyi Tam, managing director of the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust. As Tam puts it, when we talk about the heritage of a place, we spend a lot of time speaking about the buildings or the character. We lose sight of what really makes a place:

"Heritage is the people, it's not the buildings. And affordability is a core function to do heritage preservation work, in and amongst all of our communities — whether that's dragon dancing or whether that's the literal existence of Africville."

How can ownership over land help preserve our diverse communities?

The Overhead: Preserving Community

With Premier Doug Ford's repeated promises to rip up bike lanes in Toronto, and possibly even other Ontario cities and towns, we've decided to dive deep into why and what that might mean for the future or road safety and city planning.

We have a panel discussion featuring Cycle Toronto Executive Director Michael Longfied and Toronto Today Editor Allison Smith. We talk about both the impact of removing cycling infrastructure and why Doug Ford has suddenly made a few kilometres of bike lanes in Toronto a provincial priority.

And we speak to Deputy Mayor and City Councillor Amber Morley about she defends the new Bloor Street bike lanes in her ward, and how/if the City can move forward with safe street projects.

Episode 83: The War on Bikes

The City of Toronto has been named a "role model city" by the United Nations Environment Program for Supporting Urban Ecosystems. It's part of an initiative the UN calls "Generation Restoration," part of their Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

To find out why Toronto has been named a role model, and what that city can teach others across the world about fostering and protecting their urban ecosystems, we speak to Kim Statham, director of Toronto Urban Forestry, and Wendy Strickland, project manager for the Toronto Ravine Strategy.

Listen to the episode to hear how cities can play a role in ecosystem restoration.

The Future Fix: Generation Restoration

Découvrez comment Montréal repousse les limites de l'innovation urbaine. Grâce aux témoignages de Maxime Thibault Vézina, Chef de division au Laboratoire d'innovation urbaine à la Ville de Montréal, et de Raphaël Guyard, conseiller sénior à la Maison de l'Innovation Sociale, explorez comment la technologie, des démarches participatives pour adapter la réglementation, et la collaboration entre acteurs publics, privés et citoyens s'unissent pour façonner une ville plus inclusive, durable et tournée vers l'avenir.

Future Fix: l'innovation au service des citoyens

This time of year, with the temperature below freezing, it feels appropriate to talk about housing. So, we're bringing you two conversations with two authors who have both recently written about that very topic.

Carolyn Whitzman is the author of Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis.

And Mitchell Cohen wrote Rhythms of Change: Reflections on the Regent Park Revitalization.

The first book provides a macro view of housing in Canada, and the second provides a look at a specific development in Toronto.

Episode 84: Two Housing Carols

With Justin Trudeau stepping down as Prime Minister and the very real possibility of an federal election, Premier Doug Ford mulling over a snap provincial election, and President-elect Trump threatening a trade war, it's almost impossible to predict what 2025 will hold.

And yet, Toronto and other municipalities in Canada must muddle through as best they can and create an annual budget. That process has already started in Toronto.

To rate Trudeau's legacy (for better or worse) in Toronto, and to identify possible pitfalls and goals for the megacity's newest budget, we've put together a panel discussion featuring CivicAction CEO Leslie Woo and Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc.

Episode 85: City Accounting for Global Chaos

For renters, security of tenure — the ability to stay in a home without fear of being destabilized by eviction — is essential. When you have that security, you can put down roots in your neigbhourhood for you and your family.

But evictions occur all the time. They may be the result of lack of payment, but there are different legal avenues for landlords to pursue "no-fault evictions," such as renovations or moving in a family member. Sometimes these are simply loopholes being exploited, but that's difficult and costly to prove for the renter. Because housing is such big business, there is plenty of incentive to evict current tenants and name a new, higher price.

Alina McKay is Research Manager for the Housing Research Collaborative the the University of British Columbia and Sean Grisdale is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. They have both been conducting research on evictions and security of tenure.

The Overhead: Security for Renters

In a snap election called ostensibly to decide which Ontario provincial party leader can take on Donald Trump, we sure have spent a lot of time talking about highways.

In this episode, we speak to Emma McIntosh, reporter for The Narwhal, about the various election promises made about highways in Ontario. Do we expand them, remove their tolls, or simply tunnel them under ground at an unimaginable expense? We break down what the party leaders are saying about solving highway congestion.

And, it's either the end of an era in Winnipeg, or the beginning of a new chapter. After over 45 years, the barriers preventing pedestrians from crossing the iconic downtown intersection of Portage and Main are coming down. We ask CBC Manitoba senior reporter Bartley Kives what led to this politically-charged change, and what it means for the future of Winnipeg's downtown.

Episode 86: Lost Highways

We can learn a lot about evictions and the housing crisis from cities in other countries, all over the world. Often, we draw comparisons to our neighbour just south of the border: the United States. Just like us, renters in the States are dealing with soaring rent prices, a lack of security of tenure, and the threat of eviction. But they're also dealing with a second Trump presidency that threatens to remove protections for renters, scrap housing programs, and defund research into solving the housing crisis

Tim Thomas is Research Director of the Urban Displacement Project at University of California, Berkeley. He tells us about the hurdles renters in America face, the racial bias inherent in many of the laws governing evictions and displacement, and how housing advocates and academics are scrambling to come to terms with Trump 2.0.

The Overhead: The Housing Crisis in Trump's America

Episode 87: Building Housing With Election Planks

In this episode, with Prime Minister Mark Carney's pick of former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson as Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, we reached out to longtime urban affairs writer Frances Bula to learn about Robertson's housing legacy, and how he might approach his new job.

And we speak to Howard Tam, a city builder and founder of Eat More Scarborough food tours about the variety and quality of cuisine there, and how the people of Scarborough are taking back their own story.

Episode 88: Big City Mayor Takes on Canadian Housing

In the federal election just passed, we heard many big ideas about how to tackle the housing crisis. And we could sure use a major effort from our new federal government. But there is also a lot of research and advocacy done about smaller-scale approaches that would have outsized impact on housing affordability and availability. And we examine two of them.

First, we speak to two people from the advocacy group Vivre En Ville: Director of Housing Adam Mongrain and housing advisor Ines Zerrouki about the role non-profit housing can play in this crisis. 

And we spoke to McGill University Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning Nik Luka and LGA intern architect Conrad Speckert about how adding gentle density or missing middle hosing to existing neighbourhoods can increase supply, if we just allow it to be built (as many Canadian cities did in the past).

How can small-scale housing fixes make big impact in Canada?

The Overhead: Non-Profit Housing and Gentle Density

In this episode we bring you the highlights from Global Placemaking Summit which took place in March at Evergreen in Toronto.

First, we drill down into the meaning to the term with some of the event organizers: Placemaking Canada's Andrew Pask, Evergreen's T.J. Maguire, and Placemaking X's Ethan Kent.

We speak to Melbourne Australia's Gilbert Rochecouste, founder of Village Well, about lessons Toronto can learn from his city's famous laneway network.

Tim Tompkins of the Sustaining Places Initiative tells us how parts of Manhattan, NYC was pedestrianized, and how to keep momentum beyond pilate projects.

And PlacemakingUS's Madeleine Spencer talks about placemaking in communities who are under assault from the current American government.

Episode 89: Global Ideas for Local Placemaking

Change in cities is often slow, when using official channels. There is a desire to achieve the perfect plan, one that balances everyone's needs an preferences. But sometimes you need to get down and dirty.

In this episode, we talk to three of the co-editors of the new book Messy Cities: why we can't plan everything. Spacing Executive Editor Dylan Reid, public interest designer Zahra Ebrahim, and CivicAction CEO Leslie Woo talk about this collection of essays that embraces the beautiful messiness of urban communities.

And Danielle Goldfinger, executive director of The Laneway Project, tells us about a recent project aimed at helping communities make the most of their laneways.

Episode 90: Bless This Urban Mess

THIS EPISODE: Indigenous-led Housing

What does Indigenous housing look like? Are there special forms of housing needed by Indigenous communities in particular to address specific health and community needs? And what kind of housing can be built when Indigenous people in charge of the plans? In this episode, we try to address each of these questions.

First we speak to Maggie Low, assistant professor at the School of Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. She's been studying how municipal governments respond to Indigenous housing needs.

Next, we speak to Alexandra Flynn, associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC, about Indigenous zoning and housing developments in Metro Vancouver.

Finally, we speak with Bailey Waukey, a youth policy analyst with the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, about the different housing models Indigenous youth have asked for themselves through a special engagement process.

What does housing by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people look like in an increasingly urbanized world?

The Overhead: Indigenous-Led Housing

This year has been one of major change. But what doesn’t change here is talking about transit. It’s the return of Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing contributor) and Matt Elliott(Toronto Star columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter). They help us unpack the state of public transportation in Toronto and the surrounding region, warts and all.

We talk about restoring faith in the TTC, the battle of competing transit projects, the Federal budget, and why cars still take priority over transit in Toronto.

Episode 91: Talking Transit 2025

On previous episodes of this series, we've talked about the impact of an over-financialized housing market. It adds to the affordability crisis, and leads to eviction and displacement.

In this episode, we ask two experts if it's possible to decommodify housing. To build housing that isn't simply a product to be bought, sold, and traded.

We speak to David Wachsmuth, associate professor in the School of Urban Planning at McGill University, and Leila Ghaffari, assistant professor of geography, planning, and environment at Concordia University.

Is it truly possible to decommodify housing when it's become one of the biggest industries in the country?

The Overhead: Decommodifying Housing

A good news story in recent years is the amount of progress Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have made in communities across the country.

New CLTs are being established, and existing ones are winning by-in from various levels of government, as well as buying up land to preserve as affordable housing in perpetuity, sheltering units from the runaway, unaffordable housing market.

Often, CLTs preserve often overlooked and stigmatized housing such as rooming houses and single room occupancy hotels.

Joshua Barndt is executive director of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT) in Toronto, one of the first CLTs to rekindle this model in Canada. First, the PNLT was able to acquire property for affordable housing, then the City of Toronto created the Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition program (MURA) to help create CLTs across Toronto. We asked Joshua what is needed to scale up, and out, and replicate for other communities.

Norm Leech is the president of the Downtown Eastside Community Land Trust. They're just begging their mission in Vancouver's famously impoverished downtown. Norm tells us how this CLT uses a decolonized governance structure, co-led by Indigenous peoples, and with tenant-led programming.

How can we help communities secure affordable housing for their neighbours?

The Overhead: Community Land Trusts Gaining Ground

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