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Regarding the Ruins: Dehousing and the Places Where Nothing Remains

This paper seeks to reframe the way we think about the rise of “dehousing” (Hulchanski et al., 2009, p. 3) in Toronto. Outsourced private security and militaristic, colonial policing by the state (Kanji & Withers, 2021) displace people from warm air vents, tiny homes, tarps, tents, and other secluded places of refuge. Rather than see empty public space or fenced off parks as neutral ground amidst a housing crisis, I propose that these sites constitute a “ruin.” How might the ruins bear witness to the violence of dehousing? I frame my analysis through Crane’s premise (2021) that Nothing must be seen as a Something. She reveals how photography can help us in the documentation of Nothing (Crane, 2021). With the help of photographs, this paper attempts to animate the pedagogical witness of the places where Nothing remains. Rather than being conceived as a natural result of some “generic human tendency” (Crane, 2021, p. 121), ruins can be understood as part of presently existing unjust systems that must be changed. The “ruins of dehousing” turn us toward histories of colonial displacement, our relationship to public space, and our obligation to become conscious of Nothing.