At 10 AM PT/1 PM ET on January 27, the Balanced Supply of Housing will host a Research in Progress webinar with Julie Mah, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Martine August, Associate Professor at University of Waterloo, and Cloé St-Hilaire, PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo on the rise and proliferation of financialized landlords, evictions due to above guideline increases, and displacement trends specifically among our vulnerable senior population here in Canada.
Click the link below to register:
Register on ZoomThis research is connected to BSH’s Evictions and Security of Tenure research. To learn more about our work, visit our research project page.
About the Speakers
Dr. Julie Mah is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough in the Department of Human Geography – City Studies Program. Her research examines issues of housing affordability, gentrification and displacement (direct and indirect), evictions, and the planning mechanisms that can be employed to address spatialized inequities. She received a PhD in planning from the University of Toronto and she has worked as a planning consultant on community improvement plans, cultural plans, and economic development strategies in small and mid-sized cities in Ontario. Her current research focuses on: (1) investigating evictions and above guideline rent increases (AGIs) in Ontario; (2) examining the impacts of housing policy and landlord-tenant policy regimes on rental affordability and tenant displacement; and (3) evaluating the effectiveness of value capture tools to generate new affordable housing.
Dr. Martine August is an Associate Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on the political economy of housing and the pursuit of urban social justice, exploring themes related to gentrification, displacement, community organizing, public housing redevelopment, and the politics of social mix. She is an alumnus of the University of Winnipeg and the University of Toronto, holding degrees in Physics (BSc), Urban Studies (BA), and Urban Planning (M.Sc.Pl., PhD). Her current research examines the financialization of rental housing and seniors housing and the ways that inclusionary zoning paradoxically promotes displacement. At Waterloo she teaches “Planning for Social Justice in the Capitalist City.” Martine is a former Trudeau Foundation Scholar, and past recipient of the Urban Affairs Association Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award. She has worked as a housing policy advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, in the Housing Policy Branch and Homelessness Secretariat.
Cloé St-Hilaire is a PhD Candidate in Planning at the University of Waterloo, where she holds a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Her thesis, “Financialization and digital divide in Canada” looks at the relationship between digital technologies such as surveillance tech and revenue management software and the rise and proliferation of financial landlords in Canada’s rental housing sector. Previously, she completed her Master of Urban Planning and Bachelor of Commerce at McGill University. Cloé’s research interests centre around housing justice, financialization, digital technologies, big data methods, and critical planning. She is part of the Urban Politics and Governance research group at McGill, and has co-authored numerous reports on short-term rentals, evictions, and housing transitions.
