Oh, the Urbanity!: Community Resistance in the Face of a North American Housing Crisis

Abstract

North America faces a mounting housing affordability crisis shaped by decades of neoliberal policy and free-market commodification; Canada has not been spared this fate. State and market-driven solutions continue to fall short of alleviating symptoms of this crisis, failing to address the root issue: our relationship to commodified land. In Halifax, a shortage of purpose-built affordable housing, gentrification, and housing commodification have intensified inequities, leaving 22,540 residents in core housing need. This thesis challenges dominant paradigms that treat housing as a commodity rather than a collective resource, thereby enforcing antiquated models of domesticity while limiting alternative models of urban living. As a counterpoint, the research explores the potential of the community land trust model as a strategy for resistant urbanism and land reclamation, housing affordability, and collective ownership and stewardship. By reframing housing and land as a collective good, this thesis proposes an equitable alternative to market-based urban development.