Closing the ‘outdoor living room’: Investigating the impact of COVID-19 public green space closures on the housing experiences of low-income renters in Toronto

The COVID-19 lockdowns in Toronto magnified the differentiated relationship between housing type and tenure, and inequitable access to outdoor green space. The design of many Canadian park-use restrictions had a policy preference toward single-family housing residents, yet little is still known about how citywide COVID-19 public park restrictions impacted the housing experiences of vulnerably housed renters. This is in part due to the siloed nature in which research and policy have traditionally approached housing—as a context separated from public outdoor space. This paper analyzes green space use of low-income renters within the context of Toronto’s housing system, arguing that park and green space use is reflective of, and not separate from, the functions of an increasingly inequitable financialized housing system. Rather than a stand-alone event, the COVID-19 park restrictions are emblematic of long-term (mis)understandings of the relationship between apartment housing and green spaces in Toronto. Ultimately, this paper calls for park restrictions and other green space policies to be reconceptualized in relationship to, and as extensions of, housing policy to more holistically account for how low-income tenants use neighborhood spaces.