Housing and Social

Geographies of the City

Week 05: 08 February 2021
Dr. Nick Lombardo
Allan Rohan Crite (1936). School’s Out
Agenda
• Big Questions and Learning Goals
• Readings
• Social Geographies of Cities
• Urban Housing and Social Geography
• Wrap Up
Big Questions and Learning
Goals
Big Questions
• What are the spatial patterns of social geography in cities?
• How are cities divided along lines of race, class, ethnicity, etc.?
• How does housing reflect other types of geography?
• How does housing function in North American cities?
Learning Goals
• Understand patterns of social geography
• Recognize relationship between social geography and housing
• Identify key components of access to housing
Readings
Two Readings This week:

• Wyly, Elvin et al. (2012) “New Racial Meanings of Housing in

America.” American Quarterly 64(3): pp.571-604.
• Greene, Sula. (2020). “There’s so much fear: Toronto Renters Worried
about Eviction During Covid-19.” TVO.org
Wyly et al. (2012) “New Racial Meanings of
Housing in America.”
• Wyly et al – Group of scholars of – Wyly is an urban geographer from
UBC
• Audience: Not just geographers! All sorts of scholars use this journal –
a wider mediation on housing than strictly economic geography
• Argument:
• Financialization of housing – drawing of housing away from shelter and into
the realm of commodity has disproportionately impacted BIPOC people,
particularly African Americans in the US
• Excellent work in this article to show the human impact of housing
and its relation to other forms of social geography
Greene (2020) “There’s So Much Fear: Toronto
Renters Worried about Eviction During Covid-19.”
• Greene – reporter for TVO
• Audience: General public
• Main Idea:
• Rent is going down for some during COVID but not for everyone
• Lowest income renters still at risk of eviction
• Demonstrates the close connections between the various
components of housing, race, and inequality in places like Toronto
What do the readings give us?
• Two different looks at housing: both demonstrate the significance of
social geographies of race and inequality
• Housing markets function for profit in North America – not for shelter
• North American capitalism is racially divided – convergence of race
and inequality at all levels
• The means that there are clear differential housing outcomes based
on race
Social Geographies of Cities
Social Geographies
• Urban Social Geographies
• Migration and Immigration
• Race and Ethnicity
Urban Social Geographies
• Attempts to understand how and why groups of people live in certain
areas
• Based on understanding of social differences and structure
• Closely related to economic geographies, etc.
Measuring Urban Social Geographies
• As always – scale and place
• How do these geographies relate to larger patterns and processes?
• What does have to do with the geographies we looked at last week
and the week before?
• Census categories:
• How do we determine where they are
• What boundaries are on these spaces?
Major Lines of Difference
• Demographics
• Age
• Generation
• Marital Status
• Educational Attainment
• Income, Wealth, and Class
Migration and Immigration
• Generally national/federal scale decisions
• Most immigrants come to cities/suburbs of major metro areas
• Immigration has changed over time
• More racialized since 1970s in US and Canada
• Suburbs increasingly home to new immigrants
Immigration and Urban Place
• Ethnic Enclaves
• ‘traditional’ inner-city neighbourhood commercial and residential
concentrations of immigrants
• Little Italies, Chinatowns, etc
• Products of segregation/discrimination and clustering
• Ethnoburbs
• Residential/commercial suburban areas that are often very diverse but with
significant concentration of one ethnic/immigrant group
• E.g. Markham, Brampton, Richmond
Photo by Christopher Cheung, Tyee
Race at the Centre of North American Society
• History of slavery in both US and Canada
• History of settler-colonialism in both US and Canada
• Whiteness as dominant
• Historical to contemporary impact on other forms of geography in
Canada and the US
Race in North American Cities
• Race remains one of the key lines of difference through which urban
space is delineated
• How is race defined here?
• Racialization/racialized individuals – in relation to whiteness, groups
and individuals considered not-white
• Canada
• Indigenous, Visible Minorities – Indigenous, Black, Asian, South Asian etc.
people
• US
• Black, White, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander
Segregation and Discrimination
• Segregation is the statistical over-concentration of groups in certain
places
• Result of housing policy, social policy, violence etc.
• Discrimination is the poor treatment of groups and individuals based
on perceived differences
• Racial discrimination in Canada and the US key feature of social
geographies
Housing and Social
Geographies
Housing Geographies
• What is the housing market
• Housing and other geographies
Housing in North American Cities
• 30% of Canadian urban land area is made up of housing
• Expansive and extensive process that requires actors from
government, private sector, experts, lawyers, etc.
• Since 1950s has become increasingly dominated by speculative, larger
developers
• Most housing is purchased with mortgage credit
Housing and Social Geography
• Housing in North America is largely profit-driven
• In US – only 1% of housing is social
• Government in both countries has limited efforts in housing
• Fewer choices for those at bottom of labour market
• Racialized labour market and income inequality
• Black, Latino, Immigrants have lower rates of home ownership today
in North American cities
Housing Affordability
• North American statistical agencies consider 30% of household
income to be affordable
• Housing prices increase much faster than rate of inflation in North
America
• USA – rents 9.9% - prices – 16% (inflation 6.1%) in late 1990s
• Wages and incomes stagnant or slow rising compared to this
• Canada - $22/hour needed on average to rent 2 bedroom apartment
• USA – Minimum wage not enough to rent in any jurisdiction
Housing Activity
• Go to https://www.policyalternatives.ca/rentalwages
• CCPA – think tank that aims to develop more equitable policy solutions to
socio-economic issues in Canada
• Rental Housing Wage – how long one would have to work per week at
provincial minimum wage to afford the average 2-bedroom apartment rent
• Click through the cities in the list under the map to look at the
neighbourhoods in at least 3 cities and answer the following questions:
• Which cities and neighbourhoods did you look at?
• Would you want to live in any of those cities that are most affordable?
• Why do you think they are much more affordable or less affordable?
Wrap Up
Big Questions and Answers
• What are the spatial patterns of social geography in cities?
• Divided by race, income, education, etc.
• Clear divisions
• How are cities divided along lines of race, class, ethnicity, etc.?
• Clustering occurs from external forces, i.e. inequality etc.
• How does housing reflect other types of geography?
• Racial outcomes of capitalism mean that Black people, Indigenous people,
some other people of colour less able to afford housing
• How does housing function in North American cities?
• Housing is profit-driven
Upcoming Weeks!
• REMINDER: Assignment 1 Due 12 February (Friday) by Midnight
• 5% late after
• If you need an extension follow link on the course website on the assignment page
• Next Week:
• Happy Family Day/Reading Week
• No Lecture – No Live Recap
• Office Hours: 3PM EST ONLY
• Week After:
• Midterm Exam available at 12:01am on Monday 22 Feb
• Once you start you cannot re-take
• 2 hours to complete
• Only 1 attempt allowed
• Must do Midterm Exam by 26 February at 11:59PM
• Week of 1 March:
• Back to Lecture and Regular Schedule
Have a good week!