Toronto’s new social housing waiting list: putting the choice-based rental model into local context

Choice-based rental models are under consideration in Ontario for their ability to provide more clientcentric service while increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness for housing providers. They are compelling because of their potential for empowerment and provision of housing choice, though it remains unclear how exactly it achieves these outcomes. This paper asks how a choice-based rental model can help achieve improvements to affordable housing policy, reallocate scarce resources, and improve neighborhood planning in Toronto. Implementation issues and successes associated with the model are discussed through a review of literature and a case study of Toronto Community Housing’s ‘My Choice Rental’ pilot program. Recommendations for the model’s use in a growing urban centre like Toronto, Ontario include data collection and preference tracking to inform housing policy updates, using technology to improve the user experience, and conducting and participating in research to determine whether the model is performing as intended.

Toronto’s new social housing waiting list: putting the choice-based rental model into local context

Choice-based rental models are under consideration in Ontario for their ability to provide more clientcentric service while increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness for housing providers. They are compelling because of their potential for empowerment and provision of housing choice, though it remains unclear how exactly it achieves these outcomes. This paper asks how a choice-based rental model can help achieve improvements to affordable housing policy, reallocate scarce resources, and improve neighborhood planning in Toronto. Implementation issues and successes associated with the model are discussed through a review of literature and a case study of Toronto Community Housing’s ‘My Choice Rental’ pilot program. Recommendations for the model’s use in a growing urban centre like Toronto, Ontario include data collection and preference tracking to inform housing policy updates, using technology to improve the user experience, and conducting and participating in research to determine whether the model is performing as intended.

Can Neighborhood Planning in Shrinking Cities Achieve Demolition Goals? A Conformance and Performance Evaluation of Neighborhood Action Plans in Youngstown, Ohio

We examine conformance and performance dimensions of demolition recommendations in seven “Neighborhood Action Plans” (NAPs) issued between 2015 and 2017 in the shrinking city of Youngstown, Ohio. We use geographic information systems (GIS) to compare plan-suggested and actual demolitions. We examine whether overall statistics are similar and who was responsible for demolition. We conduct interviews with informants to understand causality. We find that NAPs are better implemented from performance than from conformance perspectives, but that nongovernmental organization (Land Bank) demolitions conformed more closely than local government. Interviewees provided several causes: procedural differences, overlapping responsibilities, influence of political decision makers on plan implementation, and shifting NAP goals.

Research on Practice of Sustainable Urban Development–Since the Early Twentieth Century to Contemporary Trends

Background: This study investigated the evolution of planning since the Garden city movement and trends in contemporary eco-city practices. Creating more dialogues between the past and present is essential for clarifying the context of neighborhood planning to that of sustainable urban development and their potential future trends. Objectives: This study referenced the evolution of major neighborhood planning movements to address the requirements of urban sustainability since the early twentieth century, namely the garden city, neighborhood unit, modernism, Neo-traditionalism, and Eco-urbanism. We divided these into the categories of “premodernism” and “postmodernism” in our analysis. Methods: First, the secondary data research method was used for the literature review. Second, acase study was conducted to analyze the planning of SSTEC. Third, we adopted six codesto investigate SSTEC issues and performed a correlational analysis based on the key criticisms of five neighborhood planning movements. Results: The results show that SSTEC as positive or negative aspects of sustainable development and found that all correlations were negative in the premodernist period, whereas planning movements in the postmodernist period represented significant progress. Conclusion: (a) the omission of public participation represents the highest potential risk for the planning movement; and (b) lessons can be learned from modernism and through noticing bilateral collaborative trends.

“They Sold Us Illusions”: Informality, Redevelopment, and the Politics of Limpieza in the Dominican Republic

In the capital city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, climate change and environmental concerns are used to justify massive redevelopment projects in informal settlements located along the rivers Ozama and Isabela. Residents in such river communities negotiate the uncertainty of state planning under a new socio-environmentalism that prioritizes the environment over social concerns, while continuing to pursue bottom-up neighborhood planning despite the powerful rationality of <em>limpieza</em> (cleanliness), the pervasive techniques of responsibilization, and the celebratory spectacles of megaprojects. The uncertainty resulting from governance under socio-environmentalism produces ambivalence towards environmentcentered projects among residents. Drawing on oral histories and interviews with long-time community members, we suggest that residents engage in three ‘sensemaking strategies’ to process their ambivalence in the face of daily precarity, in particular the ongoing threat of evictions. Residents ‘keep up’ with the state and strategically utilize planning language to advocate for community priorities. They engage in practices of storytelling that reproduce a deep sense of community and provide a longer historical understanding of planning interventions. Finally, through verbal speculation and other ‘unsanctioned speech acts’ they analyze disruptions caused by socio-environmentalism, build solidarity with other communities, and think ahead despite uncertainty.