Selected stories from early respondents to Gentrification Survey (survey open until Sep 14, 2019):
What is your “groundstory”? How have you been impacted by the forces of gentrification and neighbourhood change, such as the lack or loss of affordable spaces for shelter and/or work?
Eleven years ago, my partner and I moved into a co-op. It was not intended to be for long. Just a year to catch our breath after an unsuccessful house hunt, save a bit more, enter the market better prepared… The market took off like a rocket. We have safe, stable, affordable housing and we will never, ever move. Our co-op closed its wait-list four years ago. No one is moving.
Respondent, ‘Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
I left the community I loved 15 years ago because I could not find affordable housing. It has taken all those years to re-establish myself in my new community and to consider it home. Before I moved to where I am now, I was displaced 13 times in one year. That was tremendously stressful and was the last straw leading to my decision to leave.… I hate that in the arts there are really so few places that one can make a living in Canada. When I was forced to move because of housing there were’t that many options of cities to live. I have lived in all 4 large cities in the country that have the best capacity to support my arts career. And I’ve never been comfortable.
Respondent (Toronto), “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
I live in a house that functions as an artist commune near city centre in an already affluent neighbourhood with six other artists. The rent is more affordable than when I lived alone in a rapidly gentrifying inner city neighbourhood. As a white artist, I feel better about taking low income housing outside of the gentrifying neighbourhood where my presence can also signal the change of tides. The house functions as studio space for four of my roommates, two of us make do with odd spaces in the house, and one of us works outside of the house. As a performance based artist working from my living room is more challenging, but the costs of space mean I would rather create work on this small scale than pay more to work in a studio or rehearsal hall. This has led to a decline in the amount of work I am creating since moving to a shared home.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
My new landlord is a real estate company known for its aggressive gentrification strategies and tenant harassment. They tried to evict me and many others, but I am standing my ground. Many of my neighbours took their deal (3 months rent, a pittance), and now they are renovating completely even though the apartments were renovated just 2 years ago. They will now go from being affordable clean apartments to expensive hipster pads. And this is in a traditionally working class neighbourhood, where we have seen the loss of so many other affordable apartments and local small businesses in favour of people with money.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
As an artist and non-profit, art administrator I have seen the cost of rent rise for housing in our downtown. As an example, the building I used to live in was $650/month. This building was old and had started as housing for nurses but over the years was a popular building for artists. This building was two blocks from my work. The building was recently sold and renovated and now that same suite is $1100. I now live a 45-minute walk away from my work. The cost of rental units has skyrocketed whereas my income has not gone up more than $0.50 in the same period.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
[O]ur downtown boasted a ton of artist studios. Most of these studios have now left the downtown due to the predatory nature of landlords and the rental costs. I helped an arts group renovate a second-story space for a gallery. We installed new dry wall, flooring and lighting to create a community gallery space. This space had been un-used for over a decade. Once the gallery had been installed and working for a year, the landlord rented it out to a design firm at rates the community group could not afford even though they had invested a large amount of sweat equity. Many of the downtown art studios have moved to a renovated school on the far edges of town not serviced by transit. It is subsidized by the city, so the rents are fair but if you do not own a vehicle, you can not access these studios.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
I left Toronto in 2013 for [smaller rural community in Eastern Ontario]; that’s where I could afford to buy a house, at a cool $143,000. I worked in the arts, and my partner and I owned an editing company, and we were both tired of living paycheque to paycheque. We’ve since moved again [to another rural community in Eastern Ontario] just before real estate prices skyrocketed. Even then, because I now have solely-self-employed income, my husband and I could barely get approved for a mortgage for our $215,000 house. We struggle every time we have to renew our mortgage to meet the bank’s standards.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
I live in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood as a long standing tenant, i.e. we now pay less than much of the neighbourhood around us. I’m terrified to get pushed out. We don’t have savings and if we do get forced out there is now way we could stay in the neighbourhood we lived in and built a family in for the past 10 years.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
When I first moved to Toronto in 2001, I was lucky to get into an affordable loft live/work space. It was, alas, short-lived as within a year was out the door, and having to find another living arrangement. The dreaded condo redevelopment. I was able to find a second loft space that was less affordable, and less amenable, which lasted two years. Then, a shift in living arrangements had me move into an apartment and looking for a work studio. I was in [an arts] studio for a couple years, but the cost in the end was prohibitive. I had more space than I needed, and it cost too much, and [the landlord] was not friendly to subdivision of space.
Respondent, ‘Gentrification Survey”
We eventually purchased a house downtown, and I no longer could justify a studio expense. Our mortgage payment is less than rent on a two bedroom apartment. To be honest, I have deep seated fears still about affording to rent in town … what if one of us lost our job and we couldn’t keep the house, we couldn’t stay in the city as we can’t afford to rent! And we both have well paying jobs! That fear also impacts my ability to pursue my practice as I can’t afford the risk of losing paycheques to pursue a more serious career!
Summer 2019
We were forced into re-financing a building that we owned in partnership with an artist, who had managed to swindle and manipulate others in his community out of millions of dollars worth of contributions, rent reductions, and outright theft. This came in the light of his being approached by a developer who had his eyes on our building as a new location for a […] drug store and a condo. Having been in the area for over 20 years, we were faced with the decision to let the building go, and to lose the great community of artists that had grown around the hope of keeping the space accessible to the arts, or to do nothing.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
We chose to fight the sale, and took on a project to rebuild the space and to find the $2 million in funding to stop the sale to the developer, which resulted in the dishonest partner running away as a multi-millionaire, while we struggle, without any support from the city of the province, to keep this space alive for the arts.
So far so good! We have been operating for almost 2 years without any public support from [the municipality], or the province, and have plans to keep building despite the hostile condition we are living in, in which developers can afford to buy up any building they like with no recourse from the communities they serve, the city, or anyone.
Summer 2019
I moved to a rural area in 2000 after realizing that I could not afford a place to live and work in Toronto. At that time I did not have money to put on a down payment on a house in Toronto – it would have meant around $30,000 and that was 20 years ago.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
Summer 2019
I moved to [a large urban centre] in 2012. Proper housing was unaffordable to me then on an entry-level arts worker salary (note salary – I was in a better position than most). I lived with abusive housemates, dealt with bed bugs (which set me back financially hugely), and because it was more affordable to move into a shared-house that was already on a lease at an earlier market rent price, then to try to get a new lease, this meant that I was subject to the whims of the leaseholder. When they decided to move, I had to move, too. When they decided to move their new partner into the small space, I had to move. I moved 5 times between summer of 2012 and fall of 2017.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
I decided to put my own artistic practice on hold: I had to self-finance to get my artistic practice going, but it was a no-win situation: the projects suffered from such tiny budgets and didn’t show my work well, and my life suffered because I was sacrificing my living situation to be able to afford my art. Now I am in an apartment I really love – it’s not a forever place, but it’s great for now. Rents have gone up so much I wouldn’t be able to move. That scares me.
In that same timeframe the charitable performing arts organization I managed was evicted from our office: the landlord and primary occupant had to sell the 2 story building, because condos were built beside it, so the city raised the property tax on the building to be at the same valuation as if it was at full potential density – like the high rise condos beside it. That priced him out. He sold and the new owners wanted exclusive use.
Summer 2019
I spent years relocating for work which made buying a home impractical. By the time I was secure in a stable location, housing prices went through the roof and I could no longer afford to buy a home.
Respondent, “Gentrification Survey”
I currently rent and have seen 3 [above guideline rent increases] in under 4 years. […] I am not low income and it still takes one of my bimonthly paychecks to pay my rent and this doesn’t include hydro. Why are landlords allowed to charge me money to ensure my last month’s rent equals whatever my new increased rent is? […W]hy is foreign ownership allowed to such an extent that home buyers are priced out of the market?
Summer 2019