Home as Resistance – Black Women and the Cost of Belonging in Canada

Season 3 Episode 4

Andrea begins the episode with housing advocate and urban scholar Stephanie Allen, a Black woman born and raised in Canada, who helps unearth the often-obscured history behind housing systems in North America. Stephanie traces how urban planning, real estate practices, and colonial policy have long excluded and displaced Black communities, even when those policies were presented as neutral. She shares her own path from real estate development into social-justice-focused urban research, illuminating the deep structural roots of today’s inequities.

Together, she and Andrea explore why Black women in particular face compounded barriers at the intersections of racism, sexism, and economic inequality. Stephanie reflects on the role of home as a place of safety, resistance, and cultural identity within Black communities—and why meaningful change now requires political courage, from those in government to everyday citizens, to treat housing as a human right for all rather than a commodity.

Next, we meet Elvenia Grace Sandiford, who immigrated from Jamaica in the late ’80s and has spent decades working on the front lines in crisis centres and transition houses. Through supporting women escaping violence, she has seen firsthand how deeply housing shapes every aspect of a woman’s life, from safety and health to family stability. She also highlights how Black women are routinely left out of the data and policy decisions that shape housing systems.

Elvenia shares deeply personal experiences of discrimination she has faced in her work, from job opportunities denied because she was a Black woman to hostility while supporting survivors. Through her organization, Harambee Alliance, she works to make visible the housing precarity that often remains hidden, particularly for Black women who move quietly from couch to couch, uncounted and unsupported. Even today, with a new degree in hand and a lifetime of experience in her field, she faces Vancouver’s high costs and a labour market that continues to undervalue her.

We then hear from Dr. Fadhilah Balugu, who arrived from Nigeria two decades ago only to discover her medical credentials were not recognized in Canada. She describes the painful experience of being reduced to “a Black woman” in professional spaces, and how she rebuilt her purpose through service and community leadership. Today, she leads the African Women’s Alliance of Waterloo Region, supporting newcomers who face racism, isolation, and housing instability.

Having relied on rent-geared-to-income housing herself, Fadhilah understands the critical role stable housing plays in a family’s ability to heal, work, and thrive. She sees daily how discrimination, unsafe rental conditions, and rising costs disproportionately affects newcomers and especially those that are  single mothers in her community—women who are asked to carry the weight of a system that was never built with them in mind.

Finally, Dara Dillon shares her experience arriving in Canada in 2020 with her young son. Once she and her partner left university housing, they endured eight months of anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and anti-queer discrimination in their housing search. Landlords questioned her employment, agents tried to steer them away from certain neighbourhoods, and the scrutiny was so intense that they often hid their relationship to avoid bias. They eventually found a place only because the landlords chose not to demand credit checks or personal disclosures.

Even with two master’s degrees and extensive leadership experience, Dara continues to be offered only low-level jobs, making homeownership and sometimes even stable renting, out of reach. Her story underscores that housing inequity is not just about affordability; it’s about racism, gatekeeping, and who gets access to opportunity. Dara’s hope is simple. Access to good jobs, capital, and ownership so Black families can build security instead of being shut out of it.

These voices close the episode with a shared truth: naming discrimination is labour but unfortunately still vital labour to catalyze change. And it’s a reminder of why these stories matter as we continue our series on the history of women and housing.

Guests

• Stephanie Allen is a Vancouver-based housing advocate, researcher, and systems builder whose work advances racial equity in urban planning and supports Black communities in reclaiming land, safety, and belonging.
• Elvenia Gray-Sandiford is a longtime housing advocate, community worker and recent founder of Harambee Alliance, an organization focused on health and safety for Black women as they age
• Dr. Fadhilah Balugu is Executive Director of the African Women’s Alliance of Waterloo Region, supporting newcomer wom