To Remove and Replace? Examining Discourses in Support of and Opposition to Elite Efforts to Transform Community Housing Into a Transcarceral Space

Abstract

Through engaging with hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses surrounding the Province of Ontario’s Community Housing Renewal Strategy (CHRS), this thesis examines the ways in which the criminalization and social assistance systems continue to be reimagined in ways that perpetuate inequality. The CHRS legislates the exclusion of criminalized individuals from accessing community housing. Drawing on Marxian punishment theory, the role of structural inequality as the foundation of such a policy is explored. A total of 150 documents comprise the final dataset; this includes newsprint media items, reports produced by non-governmental organizations, and Hansard transcripts. The analysis reveals a total of seven themes, which highlight how the CHRS is largely legitimized based on the principle of lesser eligibility. Through the hegemonic discourses, the recomposition and extension of the penal apparatus into the community housing sector is observed. Moreover, purveyors of counter-hegemonic discourses further illustrate this through highlighting the way in which the CHRS represents a state mechanism used to reproduce poverty and perpetuate its criminalization. In conclusion, future directions for research aiming to dismantle exclusive and punitive policies are suggested.