Resisting Eviction

Resisting Eviction centres tenant organizing in its investigation of gentrification, eviction and the financialization of rental housing. Andrew Crosby argues that racial discrimination, property relations and settler colonialism inform contemporary urban (re)development efforts and impacts affordable housing loss.

How can the City of Ottawa aspire to become “North America’s most liveable mid-sized city” while large-scale, demolition-driven evictions displace hundreds of people and destroy a community? Troubling discourses of urban liveability, revitalization and improvement, Crosby examines the deliberate destruction of home—domicide—and tenant resistance in the Heron Gate neighbourhood in Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin land.

Heron Gate is a large rental neighbourhood owned by one multi-billion-dollar real estate investment firm. Around 800 people—predominantly lower-income, racialized households—have been demovicted and displaced from the neighbourhood since 2016, leading to the emergence of the Herongate Tenant Coalition to fight the evictions and confront the landlord-developer. This case study is meticulously documented through political activist ethnography, making this book a brilliant example of ethical engagement and methodological integrity.