Uniacke Square in North End Halifax by Jim Silver
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Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax by Jim Silver February 2008 ISBN: 978-0-88627-587-7 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Manitoba Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Nova Scotia Acknowledgements I am very pleased to acknowledge the Levy, Maureen MacDonald, Amy support of numerous people who live MacKay, Joan Mendes, Peter Mortimer, and work in North End Halifax, in and Tyler Morton, Donna Nelligan, Paul around Uniacke Square. These people O’Hara, Dawn Sloane, Wade Smith and agreed to meet with me, and to talk, Garfield Symonds. sometimes at length and often passion- Thanks also to my Research Assistant, ately, about Uniacke Square and North Matt Rojers. End Halifax, and each of them treated me with a kindness and generosity that is I am also happy to acknowledge the gen- deeply appreciated. They are: Irvine erous financial support, via a Standard Carvery, John Fleming, Melissa Grant, Research Grant, of the Social Science and Darcy Harvey, Gregg Lambert, Claudie Humanities Research Council of Canada. About the Author Jim Silver is Chair of the Politics Depart- riginal Communities (Halifax: Fernwood ment and Co-Director of the Urban and Publishing, 2006), and co-editor, with Inner-City Studies program at the Uni- John Loxley and Kathleen Sexsmith, of versity of Winnipeg. He is the author of Doing Community Economic Development In Their Own Voices: Building Urban Abo- (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2007). This report is available free of charge from the CCPA website at http://www.policyalternatives.ca. Printed copies may be ordered through the Manitoba Office for a $10 fee. i Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 The Case of Halifax 4 The Shortage of Low-Income Rental Housing 5 The Destruction of Public Housing 8 Stigmatization, Privatization and Gentrification: HOPE VI 10 The North End of Halifax and Uniacke Square 11 The Post-War Decline of Gottingen Street and Area 12 Table One 13 The Bulldozers of Urban Renewal 13 Table Two 15 Gentrification 16 “The Condos Are Coming”: Gentrification in North End Halifax 16 a. qualitative indicators 17 b. quantitative indicators 18 North End Halifax As a Mixed-Income Neighbourhood 18 Table 3 19 Table 4 20 “This is a Modern-Day Africville”: The Vulnerability of Uniacke Square 25 An Alternative Way Forward For Uniacke Square 32 References 37 Personal Interviews Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 1 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax Introduction Large 1960s-style inner-city public hous- tradictory space: stigmatized by many ing projects are being torn down all Haligonians as a place of drugs, vice and across North America, replaced at least violence; yet with a strong sense of com- in part by market housing that is beyond munity and enough strengths that, were the financial reach of the former tenants. a deliberate and strategic program of pub- Thousands of low-income public hous- lic investment in community-led revitali- ing rental units are disappearing; tens of zation to be undertaken, it could become thousands of low-income tenants are a model for healthy and vibrant, albeit being displaced. In most cases this return low-income, communities. to the bulldozing of the ‘urban renewal’ era of the 1960s is part of the “war of In this paper I examine the case of places” (HRM April 2004) engaged in by Uniacke Square, in the context of the cities in competition with each other for forces currently shaping downtown Hali- capital that is mobile, and for skilled fax and other urban centres, the experi- workers who seek a particular style of ence of inner-city public housing projects urban life. Cities are reconfiguring them- elsewhere in North America, and the con- selves to meet these kinds of competitive ditions leading to gentrification in neigh- demands, and in many North American bourhoods close to central business dis- cities the result is the gentrification of tricts. I argue that these forces are at work downtown and neighbouring spaces in North End Halifax, and are placing that has placed public housing projects Uniacke Square and its tenants at risk. and their tenants at risk. And I consider the alternative, which is public investment in the form of neigh- Uniacke Square in North End Halifax is bourhood revitalization that is built on one such case. Located immediately north the strengths of, and undertaken with of the Halifax central business district and in the interests of, low-income ten- and three short blocks from the Halifax ants. This community-led, community- harbour, Uniacke Square is home to the building approach, I argue, is preferable kind of spatially concentrated racialized for low-income people in an era when af- poverty that has become common in ur- fordable, good quality, low-income rental ban areas in the past 30 years. It is a con- housing is in perilously short supply. 2 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax The Case of Halifax Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia, and late twentieth and early twenty-first cen- effectively the economic and cultural cen- turies, identify Halifax’s relatively high tre of Atlantic Canada. Built around Hali- ranking in the “talent index” and “bo- fax harbour, the second largest natural hemian index” as strengths to build ice-free port in the world, the city is home upon. Halifax ranks fourteenth in North to two world-class container terminals, America in the “talent index”, which is a major multi-modal transport hub measures the proportion of the popula- that is the gateway to Canada for the tion over the age of 18 years who hold a movement of freight from the east, and university degree. Halifax ranks first in is the headquarters of the east coast Navy this index among similarly sized cities in and Coast Guard. Halifax Regional Mu- Canada, and second (after Ottawa) nicipality (HRM) is home to six univer- among cities of any size in Canada. On sities and the largest and most sophisti- the “bohemian index”, which measures cated health facilities in the region, boasts the proportion of the population em- an attractive downtown harbour-front ployed in artistic and creative occupa- with a well-maintained historic district, tions, Halifax ranks seventh in North offers a natural environment in its sur- America and second in Canada (after Vic- rounding areas that is exceptionally at- toria) among similarly sized cities (HRM tractive, and is a major tourist centre April 2004: 13-14). These characteristics, (HRM 2006: 83). City leaders are now the promotion of which is based on the seeking to position Halifax for the world work of Richard Florida (2002), are seen of the twenty-first century, hoping to as strengths that Halifax should build build on the strengths of the city in or- upon to create a vibrant downtown and der to attract mobile businesses and sophisticated urban culture attractive to skilled, upper-income people with pur- mobile, upper-income individuals and chasing power and a desire for a sophis- knowledge-based companies. ticated urban lifestyle. Other cities are doing the same (see Hackworth 2007). In This way of thinking about Halifax and the case of Halifax this involves, among its future is consistent with what else- other measures, a concentrated effort to where has been called the “neoliberal promote “central city revitalization” and city” (Hackworth 2007). In the neoliberal “capital city image enhancement and pro- city, downtowns and urban cores once motion”, and to “...provide a high qual- abandoned as part of the mid-century ity living environment, a wide range of process of suburbanization are now be- civic and cultural amenities and a vibrant ing revitalized and reconfigured, with the arts and entertainment scene” in order result that “...the inner city of many large to “...attract well-educated individuals cities is now dominated by tony neigh- who are willing to pay...” for such a life bourhoods, commercial mega-projects, style (HRM April 2004: 13). Those devel- luxury condominiums, and expensive oping this kind of urban strategy, in- boutique retail shops” (Hackworth 2007: tended to position Halifax favourably in 99). Integral to this neoliberal spatial the “war of places” (HRM April 2004: 2) reconfiguration of twenty-first century being fought between global cities in the urban centres is the process of gentri- Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 3 fication, which takes place at least in part The Shortage of Low-Income to meet the needs of the kinds of people Rental Housing that Halifax and most other urban cen- Rental housing has been in declining sup- tres now seek to attract, but which places ply all across Canada for years. This has at risk such structural legacies of mid- been especially the case for low-income twentieth century Keynes-ianism as in- renters—those most in need of affordable ner-city public housing projects. housing. Kent (2002: 9) has recently called Hackworth (2007: 149) describes this affordable housing “...the greatest of ur- process as follows: ban deficiencies”. Private developers have “...gentrification is the knife-edge not invested in low-income rental units neighbourhood-based manifestation for many years because the profits that of neoliberalism. Not only has it can be earned are too low (Carter and created a profit opportunity for real Polevychk 2004: 7). For example, rental estate capital, but it has also created housing was 27 percent of all new hous- a high-profile ideological opportu- ing constructed in Ontario from 1989 to nity to replace physically Keynesian 1993; it was 2 percent of new housing managerialist landscapes of old— built in Ontario in 1998 (Layton 2000: represented by public housing, 79).