No More Delays! Waterloo Region ACORN Launches State of Tenant Affairs Report at Kitchener City Hall!

On Monday, June 2nd, ACORN members gathered outside Kitchener City Hall to launch our new State of Tenant Affairs Report and to call on Kitchener City Council to pass an anti-renoviction bylaw – because tenants need protections NOW! CTV News followed along to catch the action!

To kick the rally off, Waterloo Region ACORN Secretary Ryan Murdock talked about the City of Kitchener’s frustrating history with renovictions. ACORN has been calling for renoviction bylaws in Waterloo Region since we launched in 2023, but Kitchener City Council has consistently responded with delays and lists of reasons for why it’s not feasible – despite several other Ontario cities passing anti-renoviction bylaws already! From 267 Traynor Ave, to 250 Frederick, to 141 and 149 Borden Ave and more – tenants from across the city have been thrown into uncertain housing status because of renovictions. Despite the clear urgency of this issue, council gave city staff over a year to research renoviction bylaws in other cities – SHAME!

Kitchener City Staff will be reporting back on this research on June 16th, so to prepare for this ACORN members conducted a survey of 160 tenants across the Region so we could launch a report on the state of tenants’ living conditions. At Monday’s rally, Waterloo Region ACORN Chair Jacquie Wells reviewed ACORN’s key findings from our report. In the report, we found that landlords use three main tactics to push long term tenants out of their homes – eviction, chronic maintenance neglect, and harassment/intimidation. Since there’s no rent control between tenancies (aka vacancy control), once the long-term tenant is pushed out, the landlord can then jack the rent up to double or triple the previous rate for a new tenant to pay. Some key stats from the report:

• 28% of respondents to ACORN’s survey said they received at least one or more eviction notices from their landlord in the past 5 years.
• 54% of those eviction notices were N13s – that’s the eviction notice landlords most often use for renovictions
• A whopping 80% of respondents who received eviction notices report their landlord using tactics to push tenants out of their homes – such as frequent utility shut offs, hiking parking fees, and neglecting maintenance.
• 43% of respondents reported that when they moved into their unit, repairs were already needed before they even moved in
• 24% of respondents stated that despite reporting repair or maintenance issues to their landlord – the issue was NEVER addressed!
• 28% of respondents report feeling threatened when making complaints about their building

ACORN member Linda Vos, who was facing renoviction at 250 Frederick from the King of Renovictions Michael Klein, shared her experience at the rally. Despite the fact that her eviction was dismissed at her Landlord Tenant Board hearing, Linda shared her fear that there’s nothing stopping Klein from giving her yet another N13 eviction notice since the City has delayed the renoviction bylaw so long – “I don’t want to go, I don’t want my neighbors to have to go… we’re going to keep on fighting until all of us get to stay where we live in our homes!!”

To close the rally, ACORN leader Ken Vogelpohl made a call to action for everyone in the City of Kitchener:

• First, if you’re a tenant, fill out ACORN’s tenant survey so we can continue collecting data on these slumlord tactics
• Second, and most importantly, JOIN US in two weeks on Monday, June 16th at 6PM at Kitchener City Hall where we will be rallying once again, then we’ll head inside together to speak up at the council meeting to DEMAND the city draft a renoviction bylaw NOW!