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It should come as no surprise to any Torontonians that Toronto is in the midst of a housing crisis.

Statistics show that Toronto and Vancouver are among the top 5 least affordable cities in the world.

This crisis hits even harder for marginalized communities who already face multiple barriers to housing security. Since Covid-19 the situation has all but been exacerbated.

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According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, there are several ways discrimination is experienced in rental housing such as (but not limited to) securing rental housing, failure to design inclusively and accommodate needs, different treatment in the occupancy of rental housing, and different treatment in the occupancy of rental housing.

For example, when securing rental housing there are chances people will be rejected from applications because of (but not limited to) race, color, age, family size, sex, and/ or if the individual has receipts of public assistance/ low wage.

There are other barriers surrounding housing rights like neutral policies which limit housing services to certain demographics. an example of this barrier is the "no pets" policy which can prevent those who require pets/ service animals for their living needs.

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Our target is the Ford Government, and in particular Steve Clark, who is the head of the  Ministry of Municipal Housing Affairs and Housing which is responsible for overseeing the implementation and development of rules and legislation that protect tenants, as well as investing in affordable housing for municipalities (Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing 2016).

The reason we chose these targets is for one, not a lot of people are aware of who exactly is at the head of these different branches of government. We think choosing Steve Clark as a target helps to call attention to him as a powerholder, and in doing so will help hold him accountable. Clark was also responsible for spearheading the Better Local Government Act to align the municipal wards with the provincial and federal ones for the sake efficiency, which resulted in the reduction of the city council size and thereby less representation for a lot of communities that are disproportionately affected by this crisis and had a lack of representation to begin with.

As well, by calling attention the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, we feel that it would help  ensure accountability in the long-term as well, as this issue is not something that started with the Ford government, and unless we attack the root structures that are responsible for overseeing and enforcing housing polices, and funding projects related affordable housing.

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Because the focus of our campaign is on ending discrimination and inequality in housing and getting barrier free housing, we want to underline the fact that housing is a basic human right, not a business and that it should not be up to personal whim of landlords to provide or arbitrarily deny housing to people.

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Since our focus is primarily housing discrimination and inequality in Toronto, our allies will be people from other jurisdictions who face similar issues of discrimination in housing, communities predominantly and uniquely affected by these discriminations and barriers, as well as low income folks of all identities, who despite not facing direct discrimination in housing, nevertheless face other barriers to housing security.

We will also build allyship with other social justice and progressive organizations fighting against discriminations, and inequalities of all form, as this will allow us to gain fresh perspectives, nuances into the particular barriers facing different communities, help us engage a wider array of folks through speaking to their unique needs and experience and most significantly help to bolster our forces.

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Our foes will include landlords, people who hold discriminatory and prejudicial views, property developers, who may feel that our campaign is a threat to their profit politicians that may have little interest or even be resistant towards our demands.

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We anticipate that our campaign might take some time to truly get off the ground.

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For our social media presence, we plan to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as our main social media platforms, as we feel that each of these mediums offer a variety avenues through which we can advertise our campaign, and reach a wide array of people.

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https://www.instagram.com/housingwithoutbarriers/

Through Instagram, we plan on putting out infographics, to educated people more on the many barriers to housing, as well as using Instagram stories as a way to constantly engage our followers,  and to take them along for a process.

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https://www.facebook.com/housingwithoutbarriers

Our Facebook however, would be linked in our Twitter, so that people would be able to visit our page to find out more about the movement and how they could get involved. We also plan on using Facebook to share our event in relevant interests and community groups and to promote and advertise our meetings to wider audiences as well as our followers. Our Facebook page will be our primary means of communication about campaign, events, and other relevant information for people to follow.

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Lastly, we plan to use Tik Tok to put out fun, engaging, educational and provocative videos to promote our campaign. One of the unique aspects of Tik Tok, is that it has the potential to reach a wider audience more quickly that we would otherwise not be able to reach with our relatively y limited resources and man power.

Tik Tok also allows for a more interactive medium to engage people. As well, because its wider and faster reach, we can also more effectively garner how our content and our campaign is being received and modulate and change our message as is necessary.

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One of the barriers we anticipate to the success of our campaign, is that much of the people that our campaign issue is most likely to affect and/or appeal to are less likely to be engaged in these mediums, particularly Instagram and Tik Tok, which tend to be dominated by youth.

However, we have high hopes that since our campaign is about discrimination and systemic injsutice in general, that though many youth may not have direct experience of in housing, this is something that touches all of our lives, and will inevitable shape our future.

As well, platforms like Facebook which tend to have a wider age range can help overcome that barrier, as well as housing specific groups, as many marginalized communities, occupy these groups, in order to secure housing, share their experiences, and build a sense of solidarity.

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While, it's undoubtable that housing discrimination and inequality has reached a critical point and that the conditions for our campaign to successful are ripe, we anticipate that it will take sometime to build a sufficient enough base before we launch.

As a result our plan is to officially launch our campaign on a month from now on May 15th. In the time leading up to that date, we will be sharing widely educational, promotional and agitational content to engage people, gain a following and build solid foundation before we sufficiently read to launch.

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Marking the official date of the launch of our campaign on May 15th, we we will be inviting people across all our social media platforms to share their stories of housing discrimination, inequality and insecurity using the hashtag #HousingWithoutBarriers.

We anticipate that by having people come together to share their stories, we can create a shared sense of solidarity, and it would aid in helping spread our message, promote engagement and personal investment, and help solidify our base and simultaneously spread the campaign to an even wider audience.

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In the weeks leading up to the action, we will be host short live-streamed videos, public events, and virtual town hall meetings where folks can get involved. This will help to build momentum, bring people into the movement and give them the voice and feeling that this movement is their own.

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The main event of our campaign would be a protest at Queens park. We anticipate that the protests may very well not be as large as we hope for, but understand that this is a process, and just as there are setbacks, there are also waves that thrust us forward.

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We understand that success is a long and winding road. For that reason, we don't expect discrimination in housing to be overhauled overnight.

We plan to fail forward. If we do not succeed in our immediate aims, we intend to reevaluate our strategies, and locate where things may have went wrong, and how we can improve for the future.

However, we also recognize that success comes in many different forms, and that just the possibility of building a movement, educating and building awareness around housing discrimination and inequality  would be a significant gain and win in our books.

We anticipate that we will see this campaign last into the year, and that the conditions will likely intensify in the aftermath of the pandemic if there is no sweeping change. For that reason, we know that as long as these conditions continue to persist so to will the need for our campaign, and are therefore optimistic that in the end, we will win.

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Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. (2016, October 14). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.ontario.ca/page/ministry-municipal-affairs-housing?_ga=1.87929240.129848463.1476797597

III. discrimination in rental housing. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2021, from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/consultation-paper-human-rights-and-rental-housing-ontario/iii-discrimination-rental-housing

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