La Ville: Recent Episodes
York Village Housing Association
La Ville is a podcast dedicated to the residents living in the Village at York University Heights. La Ville focuses on the living conditions and experiences of students, an often underrepresented category in housing policy/planning in the City of Toronto.
The podcast will explore the relationship between student-housing, multi-tenant-housing, the university, and the City of Toronto, to better understand that symbolic and material conditions contributing to what is known today as the Village at York University.
The series is directed, edited, and produced by YVHA.
July 2, 2020 @ 4:15pm, La Ville hosts Assistant Professor Jenny Foster and Urban Planner and OPPI candidate Shannon Holness to discuss spatial development patterns in York University Heights, an area previously encompassed by the Jane-finch Area. The podcast will delve into the geographical manifestations of core-periphery relations, and the intersections between the Village, York University, and the Jane-Finch community shaping these relations. The discussion will be centred around the means/methods by which Village Residents, York University, and YVHA connect to the Jane-Finch community. Finally, La Ville will look at the City of Toronto, the role of gentrification, and the impact it is having on the Village and the JaneFinch community.
For [Part 2] on June 25, 2020 @ 5:00pm, YVHA will host Professor Luisa Sotomayor, Assistant Professor Marcelo Vieta and Ryerson Graduate Shameeza Gafoor to overview the future of student-housing in the City. We will be following up on our discussion on the role that the marketization & commodification of housing has played in producing precarious physical and material living conditions in communities like the Village across Toronto. From the perspective of urban planning, design, and education, we'll look at how new policies, infrastructure developments, and urban planning practices are going to impact the Village, and the City’s rationale for moving forward with their decisions. Finally, we’re going to explore the alternative models of housing and student-housing, and how they can be applied in the Village.
For June 25, 2020 @ 3:30 pm, La Ville's The Future of [Student] Housing podcast will be divided into two parts. In The Future of Student Housing [Part 1], YVHA will be joined by Professor Jeremy Bowes and Dr. Shelagh McCartney for a discussion focused on the design and the architectural background underlining student-housing in the City of Toronto. We will be looking at the role that marketization/commodification of housing has played in producing precarious physical and material spaces/living conditions in communities like the Village across Toronto. We’ll touch on how new policies, infrastructure developments, and urban design and planning practices impact the Village, and the City’s rationale for moving forward with their decisions. Finally, we’re going to explore the alternative models of housing and student-housing, and how they can be applied in the Village.
On June 23, @ 3:30pm, YVHA will be joined by professors Yasir Hameed and Eizadirad Ardavan to overview some of the socio-spatial developments and processes in the Jane & Finch community in North York, Toronto. The podcast will look at the relationship between the Village, York University, and the Jane-Finch community over the course of the last few decades, and how the rise of York University has impacted the broader community. Our goal is to identify the social and political barriers separating the Jane and Finch community from the Village and York University, and to analyze the pervasive effects of urbanization in the City of Toronto, and it’s direct/indirect impact on the Jane-Finch community.
June 16, 2020 @ 3:30, YVHA will be joined by guests Allison Evans, Jamilla Mohamud, and Tristain Laing, for an episode centred around the role institutions, organizations, and activism play in shaping the student-housing experience for students. In particular, we’ll be discussing the role of the neoliebral university, and the broader social, economic, and political developments that have contributed to the development of student-housing. Our guests will help-us determine how these developments are linked to the on-going housing crisis in the City of Toronto, with a critical analysis focused on potential alternatives for student-housing/multi-tenant housing in the City of Toronto. The podcast concludes with a discussion of how these alternatives can be implemented in the Village at York University.
June 11, 2020 @ 5pm, YVHA will be joined by guests Derya Tarhan, Joy Connelly, and personal friend of ours, Matt Huff-Deleuze who was also a fellow villager at York. The podcast will focus primarily on research surrounding rooming houses off-campus, and the role precariousness plays in housing. The topics will be focused on the City of Toronto’s role in student housing, and the external social, economic, and political factors that contribute to the rise of precarious housing and living conditions. In the context of student housing, different scenario developments will be overviewed to address the current problems associated with multi-tenant housing in the City of Toronto. Additionally, we will explore what steps can be taken for students experiencing precarious housing conditions at York University, and how the City is responding to help students.
June 9, 2020 @ 3:30pm, YVHA’s Javier De los Santos and Claudia Redondo will be hosting the podcast. They will be joined by an array of Villagers and ex-Villagers - including Nathi Zamisa and Andrew Van Norden - sharing their lived experiences. Together, they will tackle some of the common issues in the Village from the perspective of the Villager. The podcast aims to identify key issues and recurring narratives/themes (i.e. rent increases, evictions, COVID, landlord disputes...), and to outline Student/Resident-led solutions to some of these issues. Moreover the podcast overviews some of the resources accessible to students/tenants designed to tackle these issues, concluding with how the City of Toronto has historically managed student-housing/multi-tenant housing issues.
The podcast discussion scheduled for June 4, 2020 @ 3:30pm featuring Bria Hamilton and Sarah Levy from the York Affordable Housing Committee (YAHC). Together, we’ll be identifying common issues in the Village, and how they relate to student-housing on/off-campus at York University. La Ville will be exploring some of the factors contributing to the rising cost of housing on and/or near campus, and what York University, its affiliates, and student-led associations are doing to secure housing affordability and availability for York University students.
La Ville's first podcast on June 2, 2020 @ 3:30pm will be dedicated to introducing the York Village Housing Association (YVHA). Hosts Andrew Van Norden and Nathi Zamisa will be joined by Aaron Nwabuoku and Raymond Chen, creator and co-creator of a localized social networking app known as Howdi, and fellow residents living in the Village at York University Heights. The podcast will look at what makes-up the Village both materially and symbolically, followed by a discussion of the founding of YVHA and an overview of multi-tenant as opposed to student-housing. YVHA would also like to acknowledge and thank the people making La Ville possible. The podcast will conclude with an overview of the entire series. The goal is to highlight how La Ville works to politicize both positive and negative experiences of living in student/multi-tenant housing in the on/off campus.