Toronto Community Portrait of Place Workshop

Written by University of Toronto students through the Toronto Climate Summer School: Charlie Francisco, Kalyani Duva, Waanmathi Vishnu, Xuanyue Zhang. Supervised by Professor Robert Soden.

Last month, the Doughnut Economics Collective Toronto (DECTO) and the University of Toronto hosted a Community Portrait of Place workshop focused on housing in downtown Toronto. This event was part of a broader climate justice research project and aimed to explore how the Doughnut Economics framework can guide sustainable and equitable housing solutions in the city. The workshop was designed to gather Torontonians’ perspectives on the city’s housing challenges and opportunities, foster community dialogue, and most importantly, serve as a pilot for future, more focused workshops. By sharing insights and learning from each other, participants contributed to a stronger understanding of how to support a just and sustainable housing transition. The lessons learned from this event will directly inform DECTO’s efforts to refine and expand Doughnut Economics in Toronto. 

The Participants

The event initially attracted interest from 30 people who signed up to participate, but ultimately 13 attendees joined us in the room. While this group was not fully representative of Toronto’s diverse population, it brought together a mix of perspectives and experiences that enriched the discussion. Participants ranged in age from 26 to 62 years old, highlighting a broad generational spread. Most participants were renters, with two homeowners and one individual living in a rooming house. In terms of residency, about half of the group had lived in Toronto for less than five years, while the rest had been residents for more than a decade. Nine participants identified as South or East Asian. 

The Workshop

The evening began with a warm welcome from the DECTO and University of Toronto teams. Participants were invited to complete intake forms and were informed that the session would be recorded for research purposes. 

Our intake form gathered information on age, gender, ethnicity, housing status, and length of time living in Toronto. For future sessions, we plan to expand this form to include questions about educational background, professional sector, and how participants heard about the event. This additional information will help us better understand and engage different segments of Toronto’s population. The workshop opened with a brief introduction to Doughnut Economics, using a short video by Kate Raworth that explained the concept of the Doughnut Unrolled and its four lenses: local social, global social, local ecological, and global ecological. This provided a shared base understanding of how the framework can be applied.     

To ground the discussion in local realities, we played a trivia game with key facts about housing and climate challenges in Toronto. Nearly half (46.8 percent) of renters in Toronto live in unaffordable housing. Buildings are responsible for 56 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, with 54 percent of that coming from residential properties. To reach net-zero targets, Toronto would need to retrofit 27,000 homes each year—a daunting challenge.

Participants were divided into small groups, each with sticky notes, pens, and poster paper. Each group discussed the four lenses in relation to housing in Toronto, capturing their ideas on targets, opportunities, questions, challenges, and local strengths. After discussion, each group posted their sticky notes on the whiteboard and presented their key insights to the rest of the room.

The session concluded with thanks to participants, information on where to find additional resources, and an invitation to follow up by email. Participants were encouraged to take photos of the sticky notes if they wished. Intake forms and sticky notes were collected and organized for later analysis. 

Key Takeaways

Social and Climate Justice are Interconnected
Participants emphasized that without addressing poverty, homelessness, and discrimination, the climate crisis will only worsen Toronto’s housing challenges. The intersection of these social issues with ecological concerns highlights the need for integrated solutions.

Community Empowerment is Vital
The workshop demonstrated the value of creating spaces for community members to share their experiences and perspectives. By fostering dialogue, we can ensure that solutions to housing challenges are grounded in the realities of those most affected.

Breaking Complex Problems into Manageable Pieces
Participants highlighted that housing challenges, such as affordability, sustainability, and urbanization, can seem overwhelming when taken as a whole. By breaking these challenges into smaller, more manageable components, communities and organizations can begin to identify concrete actions and strategies.

Cross-Sector Collaboration is Essential
The discussion underscored the importance of collaboration between different sectors. Toronto’s position as Canada’s leading business and financial center means that leaders from industry, finance, government, academia, and community organizations all have a role to play in achieving meaningful and sustainable change.

Conflicting Ideologies
We noted that some of the participants have differing opinions and experiences with suggested solutions or challenges. The workshop provided an opportunity for both perspectives to be considered which is essential to moving forward.  

Potential Next Steps

Expand Community Outreach
Future workshops can aim to include underrepresented groups and communities to ensure that Toronto’s full diversity is reflected in the conversation.

Lengthen Workshop Format
Extending the duration of workshops to half-day or full-day sessions can allow for deeper discussion and richer engagement.

Build Multi-Sector Partnerships
Collaborating with businesses, policymakers, universities, and local organizations can help drive coordinated action toward housing solutions.

Data Portrait of Place
Supplement qualitative data from the workshop with quantitative data to provide credibility, turning community voices into something policy makers and planners can not ignore because it is backed by facts and figures. 

Conclusion 

This first community portrait workshop showed the potential of the Doughnut Economics framework to inspire conversations in Toronto. By focusing on sustainability, equity, and community collaboration, we can build momentum toward transforming Toronto’s housing system into one that is both socially just and environmentally sustainable.