100/120 Dundas St E ACORN Members Are Getting Repairs Done!

Earlier this year, 100/120 Dundas St E ACORN members came together to demand action on long-standing repair and maintenance issues in their building. ACORN members organized a Work Order Blitz, going door-to-door and helping residents document the repairs they needed. Together, tenants submitted 50 work orders to property management, demanding that repairs be completed properly and in a timely manner.

After the blitz, Cooksville ACORN Chapter Chair Marcia Bryan, who is also a tenant at 100 Dundas St E, continued to keep up the pressure. Marcia and ACORN members met with Kipling/Starlight Investments to make sure tenants’ concerns were being heard and addressed. That pressure worked! Representatives from the building came to tour tenants’ units and repairs began getting underway.

About two months ago, Kipling/Starlight Investments sold the building to KingSett Capital, and progress on the repairs stalled. But ACORN tenants weren’t going to let a change in ownership stop the work they had fought for. ACORN met with the new landlord to push for a realistic timeline to address the outstanding work orders and other issues tenants were still facing. At the meeting, KingSett told ACORN that most of the work orders had already been completed and that they were on the case. But when we brought this update back to tenant meetings, many tenants told us their repairs were still incomplete.

So, ACORN members went back to the building to find out for ourselves! Members doorknocked the units that had submitted work orders and followed up with tenants one-by-one to see what work had actually been done, and there is lots of progress to celebrate! Tenants are getting repairs that they had been waiting for, with some completed under Kipling/Starlight and more completed since KingSett took over. Old tiles that were coming off have been replaced, leaky windows have been filled, and mold and cockroach infestations have been addressed. These repairs happened because tenants organized with ACORN, submitted their work orders together, and continued putting pressure on management to act.

At the same time, our follow-up showed us why we need to keep that pressure up. Many units that were listed as “completed” still had outstanding issues. Some work was started but left half-finished, some tenants only had a portion of the repairs on their work order addressed, and others had repairs that fell apart shortly after being completed. In some units marked as completed, tenants told us that KingSett had not even come to inspect their unit. The good news is that things are moving, and tenant organizing is making that happen! However, there is still more to come, and we’re not stopping until the outstanding work gets done.

Our next step is to return to 100/120 Dundas St E and follow up with tenants who weren’t home during our first round of doorknocking. From there, ACORN will follow up directly with KingSett about the remaining repairs and bring unresolved issues to bylaw enforcement. The progress we’ve already seen shows exactly why tenants need to organize. When tenants come together, keep following up and keep the pressure on, we get results. We’ve gotten repairs moving at 100/120 Dundas, now we need to keep it up and make sure every tenant gets the repairs they deserve.