Andrew Ingraldi

This major research paper begins by identifying affordable housing as one of the key issues facing the city of Toronto. The problem of spatial concentration of poverty is described in terms of its tendency to create socio-economic barriers and the concept of neighbourhood diversity and social mixing as a preventative strategy is introduced. A LISA analysis highlights certain neighbourhoods of the city that experience the greatest degree of housing difficulty relative to the resident average household incomes. These zones of housing affordability difficulties were found to all have a high proportion of low income high rise renters, subsidized housing and an absence of university education. In contrast, more affordable neighbourhoods were characterized by a more diversified semi-detached and low rise housing stock, middle income households and higher education. These findings support mixed housing development policies as well as initiatives geared towards bringing middle class families back to the inner city.