At the end of 2024, I decided to shift a chunk of the work I do on policing to housing – and immediately began learning the links between the two.
The first link is the close connections between the Multifaith Housing Initiative (MHI) and the Ottawa Police Service (OPS). MHI’s website says MHI “exists to build affordable housing that helps fix Ottawa’s housing crisis and gets at-risk people into secure, safe homes”. What I couldn’t find on MHI’s site was any mention of MHI being one of two recipients of funds raised through the13th Annual Ottawa Police Gala, held November 2, 2024 in Ottawa.
Sahada Alolo, MHI’s Director of Community engagement, is the Community Co-Chair of the Ottawa Police Service Community Equity Council and the Co-Secretariat Director of the Guiding Council on Mental Health and Addictions which the Ottawa police created and on which the OPS sits.
Then there’s Herongate, a large rental neighbourhood in Ottawa which is owned by multi-billion-dollar real estate investment firm, Timbercreek Asset Management. Around 800 people — predominantly lower-income, racialized households — have been demovicted and displaced from the neighbourhood since 2016, leading to the emergence of the Herongate Tenant Coalition to fight the evictions and confront Timbercreek.
Suzanne Valiquet, Timbercreek’s former public relations consultant and overseer of tenant relocation in Herongate, served multiple terms on the Ottawa Police Service Board, including as Chair. According to Andrew Crosby’s 2023 book about Herongate, Resisting Eviction, court documents spotlight her relationship with Ottawa police and Timbercreek. On October 4, 2018, a 911 call was made from Timbercreek’s office requesting police assistance to disperse a tenant rally. Emails written by Valiquet to Timbercreek officials indicate that she received advice directly from the chief of police (Charles Bordeleau at the time) on how to escalate the police response: “At 5:39 pm I called 911. I called a second time (on the advice of the Chief of Police). This way our call went from a priority 2 to priority 1 emergency call. Six police officers arrived around 6:03 pm”. Valiquet further indicated that the police officers advised her to continue to call for assistance if there were future demonstrations, noting that “the more times you call the bigger the file against [them] will grow.”
Ottawa Police Services Board member, Ottawa city councillor Cathy Curry, is also on the Planning and Housing Committee. Decisions about housing policy—such as zoning, development approvals, and funding allocations—are deeply interconnected with the lived realities of over-policed communities. Curry’s dual role raises questions about potential conflicts of interest and whether community voices are adequately represented in these critical discussions.
In November 2024, real estate lawyer Michael Polowin was appointed to the Ottawa Police Service Board, raising more concerns about links between those shaping Ottawa’s housing landscape and those overseeing policing. When individuals with vested interests in real estate development are placed in positions of police oversight, it risks further prioritizing corporate and development interests over community well-being.
The CEO of Ottawa Community Housing, Ottawa’s largest provider of community and affordable rentals in Ottawa, Stéphane Giguère, is on the Board of Crime Prevention Ottawa with Ottawa Police Service Chief Eric Stubbs. Crime Prevention Ottawa says it contributes to crime reduction and enhanced community safety in Ottawa through collaborative, evidence-based crime prevention. On July 12, 2023, Ottawa city council approved the merger of Crime Prevention Ottawa (CPO) with the City’s Community Safety and Well-Being office “for a more cohesive, integrated approach by the City to crime prevention.”
Another link between housing and policing is the disproportionate amount of funding spent on both.
In its 2025 budget, the City of Ottawa committed $22.9 million to develop more affordable and supportive housing for residents in greatest need. In the same budget the City gave the Ottawa police budget a $16 million increase, bringing the OPS net operating budget to $388.7 million.
However, while there is ample evidence of the benefits of investing in affordable housing, the same cannot be said for policing. In its 2017 report, Understanding the Benefits of Investments in Affordable Housing, the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis says:
“Investment in affordable housing provides substantial economic benefits at both the local and regional levels (provincial in Canada or state in the U.S.). Investment in affordable housing has the potential to generate new jobs, wages and salaries, economic activity, and government revenue due to the economic activity generated by the direct construction or revitalization itself, the indirect purchase or sale of goods or services upstream or downstream by firms directly involved in construction, and the induced activity that occurs due to the increased wages and salaries that these previous effects generate. Furthermore, at each of these steps, government revenue is generated through taxation, permits or fees required throughout the process.”
However, there’s no evidence supporting the claims of the police and their supporters that investing in policing achieves policing’s main stated goals: preventing and reducing crime.
There is, however, ample evidence that the police negatively impact racialized people all along the pre-school to prison pipeline. From their presence in schools that disproportionately harms racialized students to their disproportionate use of force and traffic stops against racialized residents, the police inflict harm on racialized residents on a daily basis. This harm contributes to the disproportionate involvement of racialized people in the criminal justice system – which can be financially crippling to people already financially marginalized.
It’s hard to pay your rent…when you have to pay your lawyer.
1 reply on “The thin blue line between housing and policing”
If everyone had access to affordable housing and mental health care, crime rates would drop, and people would be less likely to experience homelessness, drug misuse, abuse, loss of community ties, and violence from the police. The millions flowing to the Ottawa police should be redirected to housing. As a taxpayer of Ottawa, I would like to see the value for money for all these cops…or really I should be saying all these officers on leave. The tide can turn with violence prevention programs and poverty reduction where everyone can have a good chance for success, love, and a sense of belonging. We could be putting funds into youth outreach workers, free food initiatives, access to popular education, and transformative justice case workers. But the capitalist elites wouldn’t want that because their positions of privilege relies on the continued oppression and criminalization of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour.