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Research & Creative

housed…[un]housed...[re]housed… 2025 Symposium

The housed…[un]housed...[re]housed… symposium will shine its academic light on our affordable housing and unhoused crisis in Toronto, Ontario. Given our recent pressing issues and experiences with affordability issues, refugee settlements, the COVID-19 pandemic, addiction, mental health, and the climate crisis, the symposium will probe and discuss precedents with a critical and multi-disciplinary lens. Hence, there is a need to revisit, question, and expand on the Fair Housing Act discourse, which prohibits discrimination and the Ontario Human Rights Commission that housing is a human right. 

The symposium captures a range of topics and inquiries. It will examine the following Housing and Homelessness unifying themes: Local and Global Housing: Policies, Rights and Law, Rental Scams, Renovations and Evictions; Healthcare and Accessible Housing; Pedagogy and Practice: Civic Engagement and Pro Bono Work, Social Work, Social Medicine, and Social Suffering. 

We invite you to listen to presenters and see exhibitions and films from Ontario, Quebec, United Kingdom, and the United States. 

This event is supported in part by funding the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and The Office of the President, Toronto Metropolitan University, The Creative School: New Collaborations Grant, Interior Design at The Creative School, TMU Libraries, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, The Office of Social Innovation, Department of Architecture, and The Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic.

Speakers

Dr. Andrew Boozary, Executive Director of the Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine at UHN 

Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing and Global Director of The Shift

Dr. Carl E. Gershenson, Princeton University, Director of the Eviction Lab 

Dr. Jill B. Pable, Professor Emeritus, Florida State University, Department of Interior Architecture and Design 

Dr. Carolyne Grimard, Professeure, Faculté des arts et des sciences - École de travail social, Université de Montréal, Québec 

Catherine Murphy, Parsons School of Design, Director of Education, Parsons Healthy Materials Lab

Sonia Blank, Architecte, Chargée de recherche – Solidarité urbaine, Architecture sans frontières Québec 

Olivia Daigneault Deschênes, Architecte, Chargée de projets – Solidarité urbaine, Architecture sans frontières Québec 

Aaron Budd, Principal at SvN Architects + Planners 

Robert Raynor, Director of Design & Development, BetterStreet 

Sandra Wheeler, Matter Practice, Architect and Exhibit Designer

Schedule

Films Series + Outdoor Installation + Exhibitions 

May 6 - 9, 2025

 

Film Series 


Tuesday, May 6 at 12 noon: Push with post-film discussion, led by  Ted Landrum and Sonny Banerjee.

Location: 302 Church Street, Room 318


Wednesday, May 7 at 12 noon: Nomadland with post-film discussion, led by Ted Landrum and Sonny Banerjee.

Location: 302 Church Street, Room 318


Thursday, May 8 at 12 noon: Someone Lives Here with post-film discussion, led by Ted Landrum and Sonny Banerjee.

Location: 302 Church Street, Room 318


Friday, May 9 at 12 noon: Better Off Dead? with panel discussion, led by the Office of Social Innovation.  Inviting Death: The life and death consequences of access to housing. Hosted by Carmen Galvan, Esther Ignagni, Flavia Novais, Max Ferguson, and Eliza Chandler.

Location: 288 Church Street, Room 707/709


Join us for great films, conversations and enjoy some popcorn!



Outdoor Installation on TMU core-campus, near the bookstore 


 SvN Cabin 


SvN Architects + Planners, in collaboration with Two Steps Home and CABN, transformed Toronto’s under-utilized lots into temporary shelter communities, providing regenerative solutions for the homeless crisis. 


Come see the cabin for yourself!


 

Exhibitions at School of Interior Design, 302 Church Street, Room 105 and 3rd floor


(IN)VISIBLE : Le design au prisme de l'itinérance, Architecture sans frontières Québec 

Evicted from the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.  (partial exhibition, inspired by Matthew Desmond’s book,  Evicted ) 

Parsons Healthy Materials Labs

TinyBox Systems + DMZ and more exhibitions of work from graduate and undergraduate students.  



Film Series, Exhibitions and Outdoor Installation are free and open to the public from May 6-9, 2025.



Day 1 

Friday, May 9, 2025, School of Interior Design, 302 Church Street, Room 318

6:00 - 8:00 pm 

Welcome: Dr. Carolyne Grimard, School of Social Work, Université de Montréal, Quebec


Speaker: Aaron Budd, SvN Architects and Planners (includes Outdoor Installation of the SvN Cabin), will present Cabin Communities.


Introduction of speaker: Dr. Lisa Landrum, Chair, Department of Architectural Science, Toronto Metropolitan University 

Day 2 

Saturday, May 10, 2025, School of Interior Design, 302 Church Street Room 318

Registration Required (external link) 

8:00-9:00 AM 

Registration and Light Breakfast 

Opening ceremony:  Joanne Okimawininew Dallaire, Elder (Ke Shay Hayo) and Senior Advisor Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion, Toronto Metropolitan University (online) 

9:00-9:15 AM 

Welcome and Opening remarks: Dr. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano, Professor, Provost, Vice President - Academic, Toronto Metropolitan University 


9:15-10:45 AM 

Speakers

Speaker: Dr. Andrew Boozary, Executive Director -Social Medicine and Population Health at the University Health Network, will present Social Medicine and Social Housing.


 Speaker: Dr. Jill Pable, Florida State University, will present Applying Trauma-Informed Design to Assist People in Crisis.


Introduction of speakers: Dr. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano,Professor, Provost, Vice President - Academic, Toronto Metropolitan University 


Q&A Moderator: Lois Weinthal, Professor, Graduate Program Director, Interior Design at The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University 

 

10:45-11:00 AM 

Break 

 

11:00-12:45 PM   Speakers


Speaker: Dr. Carl Gershenson, Director of the Eviction Lab, Princeton University, will present The American Eviction Crisis.


Speaker: Leilani Farha, lawyer, Global Director of The Shift will present There’s No Place Like Home: Humanity and the Housing Crisis 


Introduction of the speakers: Donna  E. Young, Dean, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University 


Q&A Moderator: Nemoy Lewis, Assistant Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University 



 

12:45-1:45 PM 

Lunch

1:45-2:45 PM 

Panel Discussions: Pedagogy and Practice

Dr. Lisa Landrum, Department of Architectural Science, TMU; will present Architectural Agency and Pedagogical Transformation.


Catherine Murphy, Parsons School of Design, Director of Education, Healthy Materials Lab, will present Healthy Affordable Housing.


Robert Raynor, Director of Two Steps Home, a non-profit, will present Tents to Cabins to Home: Cabin Communities as a human-rights approach to homelessness.


Panel Moderator: Evan Pavka, Assistant Professor, Interior Design at The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University 


2:45-4:00 PM 

Panel Discussions: Social Work,  Social Design and Social Housing

Dr. Carolyne Grimard, School of Social Work, Université de Montréal, Quebec, will present Inhabiting the city while experiencing homelessness.


Dr. Colin Ripley, Chair,  Interior Design at The Creative School, Toronto  Metropolitan University, will present On the impossibility of queer housing.


Sandra Wheeler, Architect, Matter Practice, the Evicted exhibition,will present Framing ‘Evicted’’.


Dr. Eliza Chandler, Executive Director, Office of Social Innovation, Social of Disability Studies, will present MAiD to Die? Disability and Precarity in the Age of Crip Necropolitics.


Panel Moderator: Viola Ago, Assistant Professor, Interior Design at The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University 


4:00PM - 5:00 PM

Light reception, including viewing of the exhibitions and films 

Day 3 

Sunday, May 11, 2025, School of Interior Design, 302 Church Street, Room 318

10:00-10:15 AM 

Opening remarks: Dr. Colin Ripley, Chair,  Interior Design at The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University 


10:15-11:30 AM 


Pecha Kucha Sessions, Undergraduate and Graduate Students 

11:30-12:30 PM 

Workshop

Sonia Blank, Project Manager,  Université de Montréal. + Olivia Daigneault Deschênes, Project coordinator for ASFQ’s Solidarité Urbaine program  Université de Montréal, Workshop: Crossed Perspectives: Reflections on architecture and homelessness.

12:30-1:30 PM 

Feedback, next steps and thank you with the symposium committee. 

   
     

Research Team

Co-Investigators:

Dr. Eliza Chandler, Toronto Metropolitan University, Associate Professor, School of Disability Studies, and Executive Director Office of Social Innovation 

Dr. Carl E. Gershenson, Princeton University, Director of the Eviction Lab 

Dr. Carolyne Grimard, Université de Montréal, Québec, Professeure, Faculté des arts et des sciences - École de travail social

Dr. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano, Toronto Metropolitan University, Professor and Provost & Vice-President, Academic

Dr. Jill B. Pable, Florida State University, Professor Emeritus, Department of Interior Architecture and Design

Dr. Colin S. Ripley, Toronto Metropolitan University, Professor and Chair, School of Interior Design 

 

Collaborators: 

Sanjoy Banerjee, Academic Librarian, Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries

Dr. Lisa Landrum, Toronto Metropolitan University, Professor and Chair, Department of Architectural Science 

Theodore A. Landrum, Toronto Metropolitan University, Contract Lecturer, Department of Architectural Science

Jonsara Ruth, Parsons School of Design, Co-founder, and Design Director Healthy Materials Lab

Donna E. Young, Toronto Metropolitan University, Dean, Lincoln Alexander School of Law

 

Symposium Research Lead: 

Dr. Lorella Di Cintio, Toronto Metropolitan University, Professor and Undergraduate Program Director, School of Interior Design

 

For additional access requests, please contact ldicintio@torontomu.ca by April 10, 2025.