Open AccessHousing challenges, mid-sized cities and the COVID-19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Justin van der Merwe,
Brian Doucet
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
canadian planning and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2562-122X
DOI - 10.24908/cpp-apc.v2021i01.14607
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , situated , critical reflection , inequality , political science , geography , economic geography , economic growth , regional science , development economics , sociology , economics , medicine , computer science , mathematical analysis , pedagogy , mathematics , disease , pathology , virology , artificial intelligence , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty)
This article examines key housing challenges in mid-sized cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two questions guide our critical reflection: understanding to what extent the pandemic represents new challenges and what planners can do to respond to them? We use the example of the Region of Waterloo, situated 100km west of Toronto and one of Canada’s fastest growing urban areas. Waterloo has many similar characteristics to other mid-sized cities within commuting distance of large urban regions. In this article, we focus on two of the biggest (and inter-related) housing issues: inward migration from the Toronto Region and growing unaffordability. Both these challenges long-predate the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are early indicators that they are accelerating because of it. By rooting the challenges of the pandemic within longer trends and trajectories, our critical reflection suggests that many solutions that have long been understood to address housing inequalities are still important during the pandemic. Rather than devising new solutions, we argue that the pandemic requires implementing ideas called upon for years by researchers and advocates and more proactive planning to address market deficiencies.