Resisting Eviction: Domicide and the Financialization of Rental Housing

by Andrew Crosby

Resisting Eviction centres tenant organizing in its investigation of gentrification, eviction and the financialization of rental housing. Andrew Crosby argues that racial discrimination, property relations and settler colonialism inform contemporary urban (re)development efforts and impacts affordable housing loss.

How can the City of Ottawa aspire to become “North America’s most liveable mid-sized city” while large-scale, demolition-driven evictions displace hundreds of people and destroy a community? Troubling discourses of urban liveability, revitalization and improvement, Crosby examines the deliberate destruction of home―domicide―and tenant resistance in the Heron Gate neighbourhood in Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin land.

Heron Gate is a large rental neighbourhood owned by one multi-billion-dollar real estate investment firm. Around 800 people―predominantly lower-income, racialized households―have been demovicted and displaced from the neighbourhood since 2016, leading to the emergence of the Herongate Tenant Coalition to fight the evictions and confront the landlord-developer. This case study is meticulously documented through political activist ethnography, making this book a brilliant example of ethical engagement and methodological integrity.

Genres: Nonfiction

196 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2023

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well researched, thorough, and well organized with a clear trajectory from theoretical framing to methods to findings. As someone who works in an area related to tenants' rights in Ontario, some of the content was familiar to me but I still learned quite a bit and have come away with some new ideas that I think will be really helpful to eviction prevention work. I would have liked if the book included a bit more on the organizing dynamics of the Herongate Tenants' Coalition (ex. decision-making processes). I appreciated the level of detail in the assessments of different tactics and their effectiveness (like the usefulness of FOIs, different approaches to legal challenges, etc).

[Canyon Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading for a book club with some tenant organizer friends. There's a lot of good stuff in here. But it is highly academic, and interestingly does not really focus on the tenants, tactics, group dynamics, and larger implications of their organizing beyond a big court case that I would argue is a futile use of tenants' time and resources, generally. Still, lots of good, critical analyses here that I have not seen in print otherwise. For example, the connections between the imposition of supposed urban livability and vitality after dispossessing working class, radicalized renters; white-spacing and green gentrification, etc. All really solid and sound concepts for organizers in "North America"

[Tim Childs · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a reader not academically trained in the humanities I found the language somewhat difficult to read - certainly denser language than I'm used to. However it is a facinating case study into how real estate investors and their allies in the state go about gentrification. Very helpful book that will make you want to put your head through a wall (unless of course you're a real estate investor).