The Hill Times Op-ed: Making tenants’ voices central to housing and climate crisis

The climate crisis is advancing, and the associated impacts are arriving with increasing ferocity. Climate change means more severe weather events, extreme heat and cold, poor air quality, and more. While the change is being felt by everyone, low- and moderate-income tenants are bearing the brunt of the dual crises: the housing crisis with ever increasing rent prices, and the climate crisis which tenants are least able to mitigate.

Most low-income tenants live in apartment buildings that were built between the 1960s and ’70s. While these buildings are relatively affordable, they are the least maintained and energy efficient. Buildings are a key contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. As recognized by the federal government and various municipal governments, retrofitting Canada’s apartment buildings is a crucial step towards achieving our carbon reduction goals. Retrofits are a win-win for the environment and for tenants who benefit from increased comfort, lower energy bills, and better health outcomes.

However, as governments move forward to achieving net-zero emissions, the initiatives can have adverse impacts without adequate tenant protections. A recent survey conducted by ACORN in Alberta showed that tenants got massive rent increases at the same time as their landlord got low-cost financing from the Canada Infrastructure Bank to undertake deep retrofits. In Ontario, landlords are allowed to pass the cost of retrofits onto tenants through above guideline rent increases. Moreover, lack of full rent control, vacancy decontrol, and inadequate protections in case of renovictions and demovictions act as incentives for landlords to evict long-term tenants.

While tenants have been organizing for years to centre-stage housing issues, tenants’ voices—especially those from low-income communities—are largely missing from the policy debate on climate justice. ACORN undertook a city-wide survey in Ottawa which collected 295 responses from tenants. The survey shows important insights into the issues tenants are grappling with that have significant implications for housing and climate justice.

Most tenants live in buildings built prior to 1990. Drafty windows, a lack of ventilation, and being too hot in the summer were the common issues they reported. An equivalent percentage of tenants—40 per cent—do not have air conditioning, and experience a lack of heat in the winter. Of these tenants who experience lack of heat, 46 per cent used space heaters to keep warm, and 20 per cent of them have purchased multiples of them. Only 22 per cent of tenants have great or brand-new appliances. Roughly 30 per cent had problems with hot water.

Only 11 per cent of tenants said that their buildings had received any repairs to improve energy efficiency within the past five years. Nearly 60 per cent of tenants said they don’t trust their landlord to put the interests of tenants first.

Decarbonization needs to go hand in hand with housing justice. ACORN Canada—an independent national organization and union of low- and moderate-income people with 177,000 members organized into 30 neighbourhood chapters in 10 regions across six provinces—is calling on all levels of government to ensure that funding for retrofits must include affordability and anti-eviction covenants; energy efficiency and mechanical cooling measures; cover all rental types (townhomes to high-rises); allow other improvements (eg. mould remediation) if needed to upgrade a unit before energy retrofits can take place; formal tenant participation; upfront funding; and financing agreements shared publicly.

Provinces and cities can play an important role by passing maximum heat bylaws to keep tenants cool, landlord licensing to ensure that buildings are kept to code, that tenants have access to healthy homes, and provide energy efficient heating and cooling—ideally heat pumps—to tenants.

Tenants’ concerns need to be central to tackling barriers to climate change and housing affordability.

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The op-ed is authored by Dorian Santoir is an ACORN eco-tenant leader in ACORN’s South Ottawa for the Hill Times.