Housing research aimed at development without displacement

Development without displacement. That is the outcome Ahsen Bhatti's research is aimed at, in a city he says experiences deep social stratification. Toronto is his hometown. Rising costs of living and unaffordable housing, he says, have placed immense pressure on low-income, racialized communities, "who are often excluded from city-planning processes." As a result, he says, they are disproportionately displaced by development and gentrification.

His interest is urban planning for sustainable and affordable housing for vulnerable populations in Canada, and he is a graduate student at Toronto Metropolitian University. He has conducted research into housing strategies led by urban planners working with local community leaders, strategies he says have brought sustainable, long-term social benefits "so that development can occur without displacement."

“My research is focused on taking these local planning solutions and understanding how they can work across scale at provincial/national levels, so we can develop planning frameworks that deliver equity and affordability for our most vulnerable neighborhoods.”

Ahsen Bhatti

With support from public, private and non-profit entities, he argues, planners can take these wider societal concerns into account and build equitable social development into the planning process from the start. "By combining social infrastructure with major economic infrastructure development, we can be certain that social needs are not passed over in favour of larger-scale economic objectives in this city and beyond," he says.

The research has taken shape through his work with the Coalition for Responsible Community Development in Toronto. The coalition is a consortium of urban planners and community leaders. It works towards making Community Development Plans present in every neighbourhood, policy tools that equip local leaders with the resources to shape their own neighbourhood development.

"This would be a major step towards institutionalising a local planning solution on a mass scale," he says.