Above: The rental community of Accora Village lies just north of Bayshore Mall in the west end of Ottawa.
A collection of apartment towers and townhouses in the west end of Ottawa was the top pick for immigrants looking for a place to live in the city between 2011 and 2016, according to an analysis of census data from Statistics Canada.
More than 1,100 recent immigrants lived in the area tucked between Bayshore Mall and the Ottawa River, which includes the rental community of Accora Village and a handful of neighbouring buildings, far more than any other area in the city.
The majority of those immigrants are tenants of Ferguslea Properties Ltd., the developer that owns Accora Village. Long-time resident Mete Pamir says that while the neighbourhood is attractive for newcomers settling in Ottawa, having a single landlord presents some challenges.
Pamir moved into the community 17 years ago after immigrating from Turkey. Since then, he’s dedicated a lot of time to his neighbourhood, and is the coordinator of the community oven in Bayshore Park, a plot of green space at the centre of Accora Village.
“This is, in many ways, the heart of the neighbourhood,” Pamir says as he stands in the park, gesturing at the children who file out of the nearby school. As the oven coordinator, he meets hundreds of Accora Village residents at “community bakes” where the public is invited to share bread, pizza, and other baked goods fresh from the oven.
Nearby Bayshore Mall, a local public and Catholic school, and a new outdoor rink built by the Ottawa Senators Foundation are all reasons Pamir suggests immigrants are drawn to Accora Village. However, he says many newcomers are professionals working in the tech sector who leave the rental community in favour of homeownership after a few years.
“People don’t live here very long,” Pamir says. As a result, he says there’s a “disconnect” between Ferguslea and its tenants.
Until a few years ago, the community of Accora Village was known as “Bayshore,” but it was rebranded in 2011. Since then, a number of buildings in the neighbourhood have undergone major renovations and Pamir says he’s noticed changes in the branding of the community.
“The bulk of the residents here are newcomers,” he says. “But the image that Accora projects in their marketing is all white, very upper class.”
Pamir says he worries this will have an upward pressure on rents, and he criticises the city for taking a “hands off” approach to resolving housing issues in the community.
Census tracts are visualized based on the number of recent immigrants, according to the 2016 Canadian census. Clicking on the census tract will reveal the number of recent immigrants in the area in 2016 and 2011, as well as the percentage of houses in the area considered “not suitable” in 2016 and 2011. Black lines indicated Ottawa municipal ward boundaries. (Census tracts are small areas in metropolitan areas with between about 2,500 and 8,000 people, defined by Statistics Canada.)
Census data shows that Accora Village has one of the highest rates of dwellings that are unsuitable according to the National Occupancy Standard. This sets the standard for the number of people who should be living in a residence based on the number of bedrooms.
In 2016, nearly 22 per cent of dwellings in the community were deemed unsuitable, far higher than the Ottawa-wide average of just over four per cent.
“Crowding pressure is certainly felt in [Accora Village],” admits Bay Ward city councillor Mark Taylor. However, he says that’s a reflection of the composition of families who are immigrating to Canada, rather than an issue specific to the community.
“There are a lot of new Canadian families who are bringing multiple children, and our housing stock was really never built for that,” Taylor explains.
Because so many of his constituents live in Ferguslea-owned properties, Taylor says he tries to “walk a fine line” between addressing concerns from constituents while navigating away from landlord-tenant issues.
“They view it very much as their neighbourhood and they want to keep it in good shape,” he says.
A representative from Ferguslea declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email, Tina Fisher, director of communications and marketing, said Accora Village “follows all health, safety, housing and maintenance standards including the City of Ottawa’s Occupancy Bylaw.”