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Mapping Ruling Relations Through Homelessness Organizing

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Mapping Ruling Relations Through Homelessness Organizing MAPPING RULING RELATIONS THROUGH HOMELESSNESS ORGANIZING A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Social Work York University Toronto, Ontario May 19, 2020 © A. J. Withers, 2020. Abstract Poor people’s organizing can be effective even in periods of neoliberal retrenchment. This dissertation examines ruling relations and the social relations of struggle from the standpoint of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With political activist ethnography as my central theoretical framework and methodological approach, I conducted field research, interviews and textual analysis of City and organizational documents. Focusing on OCAP’s homelessness campaigns, I examine the social relations of struggle in three campaigns in Toronto: a campaign to stop the criminalization of homeless people in a public park by private security, a campaign to increase access to a social assistance benefit for people in emergency housing need, and a campaign to increase the number and improve the conditions of emergency shelter beds. My research demonstrates the active and ongoing research and theorization that anti-poverty activists engage in as well as the practices of delegitimization, excluding critique, testimonial injustice and epistemic violence that ruling relations engage in to counter activist research and theory. Some of this research and theory has regarded both Housing First policy and philosophy and Toronto’s emergency shelter system which OCAP, homeless people and other advocates have been decrying as unjust and inept for years. This dissertation explicates some of the ways that the City works to delegitimize its challengers and demonstrates the validity of many of the longstanding critiques of the ruling regime. While the City of Toronto has worked to contain homelessness organizing in Toronto, and deployed numerous demobilization tactics to do so, each campaign was fully or partially successful. Full or partial victories were secured by anti-poverty activists through the use (or threat) of direct action tactics. ii Dedication To the more than 1,000 people whose names are on the Toronto Homeless Memorial … and to those unknown. iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I want to thank the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and its members for allowing and supporting me to do this project. This dissertation wouldn’t have been possible without you, not only for the obvious reason that it is conducted from OCAP’s standpoint, but also because I’ve developed much of my political analysis through my experiences with OCAP. I especially want to thank the OCAP Research Steering Committee who put in so much labour and care to this project. I am deeply grateful for your support as a group and as individuals during this project, and throughout my time in OCAP. The group was comprised of Yogi Acharya, Marque Brill, John Clarke, Danielle Koyama and Lesley Wood, each of whom I will now thank individually. Yogi Acharya: one of the OCAP Organizers during my field research and someone whom I consider a dear friend. Your support during this process has been integral at every step – from my first day back in the office; to trying to figure out how to frame an argument or a chapter; to your thoughtful, constructive feedback. The happiest moment of the long and relatively lonely writing and revising phase of this dissertation was when you called me about the last chapter and told me that you were going to print my taxonomy and keep it in your wallet so you could identify what the ruling regime was doing when they were doing it. Thank you for making me feel like this project is worthwhile - that gave me the boost I needed to pull through. Marque Brill: thank for your attention to detail, helpful questions, cutting humour and quiet support. You are a person who has provided these things and more for many years. John Clarke: the other OCAP Organizer during this project, who has since retired, but has remained on this committee. Thank you for your work on this committee and for your support throughout my dissertation. I appreciated our time chatting in the office again, particularly your knowledge and insight about global politics and endless well of one-liners. Also, thank you for your support and mentorship over the many years we have known each other. Danielle Koyama: I want to thank you for your support throughout this project. You provided comprehensive feedback about my dissertation for which I am deeply appreciative. You have been supportive of me as an organizer over the last fifteen years or more. If I need to talk strategy or am struggling emotionally, you are always there and I can never thank you iv enough for it. When OCAP turned 20, we gave you the “Secret Weapon” award. You fly under the radar but are both the backbone and the heart of OCAP in my opinion. Thank you for everything you did for this project and for your friendship. Last but far from least, I want to thank Lesley Wood who is both a long-time OCAP member and an Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. Lesley, thank you for all of your feedback and for being someone I could go to with issues and questions that crossed that academic/OCAP divide. You provided me with a great deal of support and advice throughout my research and writing which has been invaluable. I also want to thank you for supervising a directed reading course that helped me ground myself in social movement theory. I want to thank the many people who I interviewed for this project (including those who chose to remain anonymous). I know people have very busy lives and I am grateful you were able to take the time to discuss these issues with me. OCAP: Yogi Acharya, John Clarke, Cathy Crowe, George de Guzman, Beric German, Wendy Forrest, Jessica Hales, Gaétan Héroux, Danielle Koyama, Randy McLin, Macdonald Scott, Don Weitz, Lindsay Windhagger, Lesley Wood, anonymous members MP: Adam Vaughan City Councillors: Joe Cressy, Paula Fletcher, Michael Ford, Joe Mihevc, James Pasternak, Gord Perks, Kristyn Wong-Tam, anonymous councilors Media: Peter Biesterfeld, Matt Elliott, Jeff Grey, Emily Mathieu, and Paul Salvatori Special thanks to Beric German who spent a lot of time helping me understand the history of homelessness organizing in the Downtown Eastend and Housing First. Also thank you for your feedback on the Housing First chapter in this dissertation. I want to thank my academic committee for their tremendous support and feedback throughout this process. Wendy McKeen, my Supervisor: thank you for getting me to the finish line and your ongoing support and insight. Chris Chapman: thank you for your feedback and the large amount of support you have given me for this dissertation and over the years. And, Gary Kinsman: thank you for your comprehensive feedback, your generosity in making yourself available to me in your retirement and your support. v This dissertation is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. To Laura MacDonald – my love, thank you for supporting (and tolerating) me over these past seven years in so many material and immaterial ways. You were patient when I could talk about nothing other than my dissertation because I did and thought about nothing else. You were insightful when I was stuck and needed to talk through an idea or concept. You were compassionate when I was too exhausted to do anything, or I would inevitably work myself into a migraine or back injury. You were enthusiastic when I would hit a milestone, even as the years went on and completion seemed evasive. And most importantly, you were you. Matt Leitold who has been such a wonderful friend for so many years and who I love dearly. Thank you for all your support, including the many dinners, day-trips, dog-walks and distractions. Loree Erickson, thank you for being a fabulous friend, talking me down from freak-outs and giving me advice when I needed it. Also thank you for your incredibly valuable feedback on sections of this dissertation. Thank you to Ander Negrazis for your feedback on one of the chapters of this dissertation, the many work dates and conversations. I want to thank the many people who were a part of my care collective during my doctoral studies. There are too many to name but without them, there are days that I would have truly struggled, skipped meals and my dog would have gone unwalked. Thank you. I especially want to thank Scout Huston for their part in this and as one of the people who ongoingly provides support for me (along with Matt, Ander, Yogi and Sonja). Also, thanks Scout for being a lovely friend. I want to thank three faculty at the York University Writing Centre for their helpful feedback, support and motivation: Stephanie Bell for getting me going with a realistic plan; Keith O’Regan for keeping me going, providing me with new insights and ways of working; and, Kate Kaul for getting me to the finish line with lots of support and critical feedback. vi Robyn Letson edited this dissertation. Thank you, Robyn, for doing a great job. Of course, any errors are my own. I also want to thank Drew Belsky and Megan Hillman, with whom I worked once a week or more over the last year of finishing this dissertation. Thank you to both of you for your ongoing support, encouragement and mutual aid. vii Table of Contents Abstract ..............................................................................................................................
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