FairbnbTO: De-financializing housing through platform cooperative innovation

The recent unregulated growth of short-term rental (STR) platforms such as Airbnb have increasingly affected both tourism and housing affordability in main urban centers. FairbnbTO mobilizes STR platform technology to help housing affordability and sustainable tourism in the neighbourhood. FairbnbTO is an evidence-based research project that aims to reinstate the social benefits of STR platforms into local communities by bringing STR platform technology together with the co-operative and the community land trust movements in Canada, starting with the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT) in Toronto. In collaboration with our international partner Fairbnb.coop, a short-term rental platform co-operative based in Italy, FairbnbTO provides a similar STR platform to that of Airbnb, with the major differences that the platform (1) is owned by a worker cooperative, (2) complies with the City of Toronto’s recent STR regulations, and, (3) will give 50% of the booking fees directly to the KMCLT to offset operational costs of the land trust. A key innovative objective of our demonstration project is to use the STR platform technology that has been increasingly contributing to the financialization of housing to begin to de-financialize housing in the tightest housing markets across Canada.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jason Spicer;Luisa Sotomayor

Student:

Partner:

Fairbnb Canada;Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI)

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Accommodation and food services

University:

University of Toronto; York University

Program: