Herongate Research and Advocacy
Research
Herongate, Ottawa
2023
Research
Herongate, Ottawa
2023
Heron Gate Village is a large rental housing development, home to about 4,000 tenants, centrally located in Ottawa. Starting in the late 1960s, and over a period of around 15 years, a variety of typologies were constructed, from row townhouses to large apartment towers to low-rise apartment buildings. It has long been one of Ottawa's most racialized neighbourhoods, where people from Africa, the Middle East, Nepal, and many other countries have settled.
Over the last decade, however, it has been the target of "repositioning" by Toronto-based financialized landlord Hazelview. Two mass displacements have already taken place, the first in 2015 and the second in 2018, with hundreds of tenants pushed from their home under the pretext of demolition. Hazelview has constructed a luxury rental project on the site of the 2015 displacement. This project has been branded "Vista Local" in the image of the adjacent Alta Vista neighbourhood, which is one of Ottawa's wealthiest and whitest neighbourhoods. Hazelview, therefore, appears to be repositioning Heron Gate Village from its reality as a Muslim and racialized neighbourhood, into one that emulates a white, wealthy one.
This research project aims to explore and understand the process of repositioning rental housing developments like Heron Gate Village into areas that investors, landlords, developers, and the Canadian state view as projecting an image of wealth and whiteness.
Over the last decade, however, it has been the target of "repositioning" by Toronto-based financialized landlord Hazelview. Two mass displacements have already taken place, the first in 2015 and the second in 2018, with hundreds of tenants pushed from their home under the pretext of demolition. Hazelview has constructed a luxury rental project on the site of the 2015 displacement. This project has been branded "Vista Local" in the image of the adjacent Alta Vista neighbourhood, which is one of Ottawa's wealthiest and whitest neighbourhoods. Hazelview, therefore, appears to be repositioning Heron Gate Village from its reality as a Muslim and racialized neighbourhood, into one that emulates a white, wealthy one.
This research project aims to explore and understand the process of repositioning rental housing developments like Heron Gate Village into areas that investors, landlords, developers, and the Canadian state view as projecting an image of wealth and whiteness.
