Toronto's Homelessness Crisis
Essay: The essay is around 2000 words (max 2100 - min 1900, bibliography, notes, in-text citations, headings, and title page included) and must be double-spaced. Turnitin counts every single word in the submission and I will use that counting to assess whether the word count has been met. ANY ASSIGNMENT THAT DOES NOT RESPECT THE WORD LIMIT WILL INCUR A 20% DEDUCTION (this includes all assignments with a word count above or below the limit). Use 12-size font.
Objective: Throughout a critical analysis, you are expected to demonstrate an understanding of one aspect of the geography of Toronto. You are also required to show an active engagement with the subject and be able to formulate an original perspective on it: this means that the essay must show that you have thought about the subject and developed your own informed opinion. The goal of the essay is to examine how life in the city is shaped and affected by the constant interaction between place and the people who inhabit it.
Toronto’s homelessness crisis
Evaluation: The essay requires the student to carry out an analysis of the subject, and make and justify an evaluative, comparative or explicatory judgement. The essay will be evaluated based on clarity of organization, logic, syntax, and grammar of student writing.
Follow an essay format and make sure your paper includes an introduction (clearly indicating topic, thesis statement, and how you plan to structure your paper), a proper body, and a conclusion (reviewing and summarizing the arguments and evidence presented in the body).
When you quote or paraphrase other scholars, you MUST provide in-text references and a full list of work cited at the end.
Quotes must be properly identified with quotation marks to avoid charges of plagiarism.
You are required to use at least 6 peer-reviewed journal’s articles (books’ chapters, commentaries, book reviews etc. will not be accepted as part of the required sources but can be used in addition to them) outside class readings.
Limit the number of quotations (2-3 max.) as this is expected to be an original student paper rather than a mosaic of quotes; paraphrasing is often a better option than quoting.
Do NOT include headers.
Grammar and Style:
Before submitting your work, please make sure that you have conducted a spell and grammar check in word, and strictly followed the page limits. In order to write a good assignment, it is not enough to follow the instruction and have thoughtful arguments, you also need to present the material in a clear and organized fashion.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of Peer-Reviewed Journals where students will be able to find useful articles:
Urban Studies
Canadian Journal of Urban Research
Environment and Planning A
Environment and Planning C
Geography Review
The Canadian Geographer
Journal of the American Institute of Planners
Transportation Quarterly
Canadian Journal of Regional Science
Annals, Association of American Geographers
Geojournal
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Journal of Urban Affairs
Housing Studies
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Urban Geography
Submissions must be made on D2L by the end of the day indicated in the course outline.
While writing your assignments, keep in mind the following:
a) Follow MLA, APA or Chicago style (whichever you are more familiar with);
b) Make sure your argument unfolds in a logical, coherent fashion, and that the discussion emphasizes analysis over description, remains focused, and avoids irrelevancies and repetitions;
c) Quotations must be introduced, contextualized, explained adequately, and properly identified;
d) While a couple of quotations are allowed, remember that the goal is to submit a student’s paper rather than a collage of quotes, so try to paraphrase whenever possible;
e) Your goal should be to write an essay that is well structured and a pleasure to read; avoid one-sentence or one-page paragraphs;
f) Very important: make sure all sentences are complete; discussion uses formal language (no jargon or slang); no contractions or abbreviations; paper has been proofread and avoids typos, errors and punctuation problems; title page is included; pages are numbered.
Toronto’s Homelessness Crisis
Student’s Name
Institution
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name
Date
Toronto’s Homelessness Crisis
The challenge of homelessness across Canada has worsened over the years, although some cities have it worse than others. One such city is Toronto, and according to the City of Toronto (n.d.), it has over 8,000 homeless people, forcing the government to identify new ways of providing affordable housing opportunities. In addition, more than 81 000 households in Toronto were on an active social housing waiting list as of 2021 (Walks & Soederberg, 2021). As such, homelessness is a complex crisis that requires urgent attention to ensure that every individual in the city has access to a safe and affordable housing situation. Toronto is the largest housing market in Canada, and the housing market has been thriving in recent years. However, the boom in the housing market presents its share of challenges because it makes it challenging for residents to find and keep affordable housing. Gordon (2020) reveals that the trend of rising house prices in Toronto presents house affordability issues for the residents. Thus, the homelessness crisis in Toronto can be attributed to changes in housing market trends.
Financialized Landlords and Homelessness
The Toronto housing market is characterized by a new form of gentrification driven by financialization. According to August and Walks (2018), after the global economic crisis of 2008, the housing market of cities such as Toronto was taken over by financialized landlords, whose primary focus is profit generation for investors in the real estate market. These financialized landlords target areas that are either undergoing gentrification or have the potential to succumb to gentrification pressures in the future. While gentrification can positively impact a city's dwelling through improved property value, commercial development, and economic growth, it also presents housing challenges, especially for low-income households. As August and Walks (2018) note, financialized landlords renovate distressed or mismanaged properties to attract wealthier tenants and residents. These wealthier residents are willing to pay higher rent rates than existing tenants. As a result, existing tenants are displaced from these areas, and when they fail to find affordable housing, they join other homeless people in the city.
In addition, financialized landlords occasionally adjust rents for their properties, contributing to tenant displacement and eventual homelessness. According to August and Walks (2018), financialized landlords upgrade their current properties every time there is a vacant house. After each upgrade, the vacant house attracts a 39% rent increment. Sitting tenants in these upgraded houses also experience rent increases, and those unable or unwilling to pay for higher rent rates are displaced. Such upgrades are especially impactful on low-income individuals who experience homelessness as they seek more affordable housing. Lima (2020) adds that the housing market financialization in Toronto has placed a high financial burden on tenants and homeowners, who are forced out of an urban area by financial landlords looking to increase their financial returns from real estate properties. As more financial landlords penetrate Toronto's housing market, the available, affordable housing becomes limited, forcing the city's residents into homelessness.
Short-term Rentals and Homelessness
Another trend in Toronto’s housing market has been the development of short-term rental properties. According to Grisdale (2019), Toronto and other large cities in Canada have experienced a growth in short-term rentals in the last several years because they are affordable and offer a more authentic local experience than traditional accommodation facilities. More homeowners and landlords are repurposing their houses to accommodate tourists looking for short-term rental facilities. Short-term rentals have become a new form of gentrification in inner cities, contributing to the displacement of low-income city residents.
Grisdale (2019) indicates that short-term rentals have become a new source of revenue in Toronto's housing market, putting upward pressure on long-term rentals. Even more interesting is that this form of gentrification requires no redevelopment of rental properties and is affecting culturally attractive areas (Wachsmuth & Weisler, 2018). This creates unevenness in gentrification within an urban area. Urban areas that are more culturally diverse are most affected, which means that areas with high concentrations of racial/ethnic minorities and indigenous people are affected the most. Since short-term rentals are specifically designed for travellers or tourists, their existence poses a threat to long-term city tenants.
As more rental properties are converted into short-term rentals, the availability of long-term rental facilities has reduced significantly (Grisdale, 2019). Short-term rentals generate attractive revenues for landlords and homeowners and, as such, offer them an incentive to convert their rental properties to short-term properties. However, this comes at the expense of displaced long-term tenants. The displacement of long-term dwellers contributes to the homelessness crisis in Toronto.
Further, short-term rentals limit the availability of affordable housing. According to Wachsmuth and Weisler (2018), large cities around the world are grappling with lost affordable housing because of short-term rentals. This reality of limited housing is exacerbated by the fact that, in spite of the increase in the demand for short-term rentals, it is not easy to introduce new housing in response to this demand (Wachsmuth & Weisler, 2018). Instead, the competition between the demand for long-term and short-term rentals increases, contributing to the already existing housing crisis. Short-term rental practices also contribute to an increase in the cost of housing. A reduced supply of affordable housing pushes the price of the remaining houses up. Those who cannot afford to pay higher prices are forced into homelessness in the absence of affordable housing.
Low Tenant Protection and Homelessness
Low tenant protection trends have also characterized Toronto's housing market. According to August and Walks (2018), the housing crisis in Toronto can be attributed to the loss of sufficient tenant protection policies in the mid-1990s when the federal government deregulated rent control and tenant protectio...