The rapidly rising cost of buying a home has caught the attention of politicians at all levels, but about a third of Ontario residents are renters and non-homeowners, according to the Advocacy Center for Tenants Ontario.
Rents are rising significantly in several cities in Ontario, not just Toronto. Includes Hamilton and London.
The high cost of rent is especially worrisome in the Jane and Firgrove neighborhood of northwest Toronto, where most residents are tenants.
Nasra Mohamed, a resident of the area who has lived there all her life, says that while housing costs are a concern for city-wide residents, it is especially so for her and her neighbors.
“In lower-income communities that receive lower wages in a dense area like this, rent control becomes a line between whether I’ll pay rent, groceries, or have to apply for social housing,” he told CBC. . Toronto.
TARGET | Tenants “have been left out” of the housing debate during the Ontario election campaign:
Tenants feel “abandoned” by the housing debate ahead of the Ontario election
In Toronto, there are growing calls for provincial holidays to better protect tenants and neighborhoods that they call home.
Rent control, where the allowable annual increase is limited to 1.2 per cent, currently only applies in Ontario for rental units built before 2018. Annie Stanley, who rents a two-bedroom apartment and a bathroom in Toronto’s Humewood-Cedarvale neighborhood with a roommate costing $ 2,300 a month plus hydraulic, points out older building owners can still apply to increase rent above the provincial guideline when repairs or renovations are made.
Not only can’t you afford to buy a home, but you worry about things like rent increases above the schedule.
“No one thinks about people who are renting full time,” he said. “There are so many things that people are doing to tackle buying a home and that’s good, but there’s this whole section of people that are being left out.”
He wants politicians to remember that the problems tenants face are important. “Because we vote too.”
Gentrification is also a problem
While rent control is a piece of the puzzle, Mohamed points out that gentrification also undermines the availability of affordable rental housing.
After decades of neglect, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) demolished parts of the Firgrove-Grassways community. Community housing will be replaced, but hundreds of market units will also be built in what is called revitalization of the area.
“So the question is, how will you maintain this kind of community, the character of the community, while allowing us, you know, to live here and not be evicted or appraised?” Mohamed asked.
Marcia Stone, seen here protesting in front of a Toronto apartment building, is an advocate for tenant rights. She warns that tenants will face financial hardship if Ontario politicians do not enact broader rent controls. (Submitted by Caitlin Toombs)
Marcia Stone, who moved to Toronto from PEI years ago and has struggled to find an affordable rental home, is a tenant advocate with ACORN and has a warning to politicians.
“What do you think will happen if we don’t put the rent in control, if it’s not prioritized?” she said. “There will be more and more camping. There will be an increase in food banks. It’s a domino effect.”
Parties running for office in the Ontario election have realized the problem. That’s what the major parties are going to do for tenants.
Progressive conservatives
In the 2022 budget, Progressive Conservatives pledged $ 19.2 million over the next three years to the Ontario Land Court and the Board of Landlords and Tenants, “to resolve cases more quickly, address the issue. ‘Significant backlog, support more efficient dispute resolution and increase housing supply and opportunity,’ says the budget document.
The budget presents the Conservative Progressives’ “More Homes for All” plan, which was released in early March, saying the policies outlined in it will help “protect tenants”, but even though the plan includes a series of changes to make it easier for municipalities. to speed up approvals and build more homes, it does not include programs that directly reduce the cost of rent.
“The government will deliver an action plan for housing supply each year for the next four years, with policies and tools that support multigenerational housing and missing intermediate housing,” the budget says. The term “average shortfall” refers to multi-unit dwellings such as stacked townhouses, low-rise apartments, and multi-unit rental converted properties.
The Liberals
The Liberals are committed to regaining control of rents across the province, “providing much-needed stability to tenants who can prepare for smaller, more predictable rent increases,” the platform says.
The party also promises to create a path to ownership for tenants. It would be a “legal framework that provides protections and certainty for landlords and tenants to opt for property rental agreements,” but no further details are provided.
Liberals also say the party’s housing plan, which aims to build 1.5 million new homes over the next decade, will put downward pressure on rents.
They also want to clear up delays in the Ontario Land Court and the Landlords and Tenants Board in part by investing an additional $ 15 million a year in these agencies.
The party says it will make it easier to add additional units to rental properties through changes to zoning laws and “strengthen provincial oversight of elevator access and maintenance to make sure disruptions are resolved more quickly,” to buildings of apartments, although the platform does not. do not explain how.
Student housing is another focus of the platform.
“As the number of college and university students grows in Ontario, too many students are forced to pay high rents or live in precarious, poorly maintained homes,” he says.
The party says it will end student housing development costs and change zoning laws to allow more student housing on campus.
NDP
The NDP is committed to regaining control of the rent of the flats, including a guarantee “that you pay what the last tenant paid.”
The party says it will provide income assistance to 311,000 homes in the province, including rental homes, which was recommended in a recent report by the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) and the Co-operative Housing Federation Of Canada.
The party also pledges to end case backlog in the Landlords and Tenants Board and restore the right to a face-to-face hearing before the board, but the platform does not provide additional details on how the backlog will be removed.
Greens
The Greens also want to introduce rent control “to regulate rent increases year after year,” the platform says, but gives no figures.
They are committed to providing support to 311,000 Ontario households, including tenants, as recommended by the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) and the Co-operative Housing Federation Of Canada.
They will also introduce a “clear system” for what kind of renovations can justify rent increases and change the sections of the Residential Lease Act on the state of repair “to ensure tenants have safe housing.”
The party also wants stricter rules on “renovations and evictions in bad faith”, which according to the platform will keep the apartments affordable, but there are no further details on how it will work.
Like other parties, the Greens want to increase funding to the Homeowners and Tenants Board to hire more winners and get rid of mandatory online hearings. “This will help address the delays so that both landlords and tenants have timely access to justice,” the platform says.
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