Housing challenges, mid-sized cities and the COVID-19 pandemic: Critical reflections from Waterloo Region

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Justin van der Merwe
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8380-0243
Brian Doucet
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4268-0185

Abstract

This article examines key housing challenges in mid-sized cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two questions guide our critical reflection: understanding to what extent the pandemic represents new challenges and what planners can do to respond to them? We use the example of the Region of Waterloo, situated 100km west of Toronto and one of Canada’s fastest growing urban areas. Waterloo has many similar characteristics to other mid-sized cities within commuting distance of large urban regions. In this article, we focus on two of the biggest (and inter-related) housing issues: inward migration from the Toronto Region and growing unaffordability. Both these challenges long-predate the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are early indicators that they are accelerating because of it. By rooting the challenges of the pandemic within longer trends and trajectories, our critical reflection suggests that many solutions that have long been understood to address housing inequalities are still important during the pandemic. Rather than devising new solutions, we argue that the pandemic requires implementing ideas called upon for years by researchers and advocates and more proactive planning to address market deficiencies.

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How to Cite
van der Merwe, J., & Doucet, B. (2021). Housing challenges, mid-sized cities and the COVID-19 pandemic: Critical reflections from Waterloo Region. Canadian Planning and Policy Aménagement Et Politique Au Canada, 2021(01), 70–90. https://doi.org/10.24908/cpp-apc.v2021i01.14607
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Articles
Author Biographies

Justin van der Merwe, University of Waterloo

Dr. Justin van der Merwe has a PhD in Geography from Oxford University. He is currently studying Planning at the University of Waterloo

Brian Doucet, University of Waterloo

Dr. Brian Doucet is the Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Social Inclusion in the School of Planning, University of Waterloo

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