Toronto ACORN Tenant Victories
Posted June 26, 2026
And it’s a Hat Trick for Toronto ACORN and tenants this month!
ACORN wanted to reach out to labour and thank you for all your support over the years. Toronto ACORN success has come from years of support from allies like the labour movement. We now have 40,000 members across the city and six chapters. At the local building level we have won hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs for local tenants in the last few years.
Here are 3 victories from collective action just in the last month!
- Keep our buildings up to code! Colour Coded Signs! After years of fighting to get this tool implemented by Rentsafe in Toronto (a program Toronto ACORN and allies like the FMTA won initially in 2018). We won. Colour Coded signs indicating which buildings are below code are now posted in lobbies of apartment buildings to ensure new tenants can’t be fooled and placing an incentive on landlords to comply with basic building codes. One more step to holding landlords accountable in the city of Toronto!
- 500 Dawes road, Remedial Action and massive fines for slumlords!! This one, it’s big. Another long fight by ACORN and allies, like the local legal clinic, to force the city to hold its most notorious landlord accountable. And Yes, a huge step, the city now is doing the work themselves, and billing the landlord on their tax bill!! PLUS, all of this led to landlord Krebs / Havcare getting $1 million in fines (and JAIL-time). Finally, some justice for the ACORN members and tenants in the building. Special props to ACORN leader Leader Ryan Endoh who held strong in the building to ensure justice was done!
- Beat the Heat! Max Heat bylaw, and free Air conditions for low income folks. This campaign has been growing in intensity as the climate crisis escalates. ACORN and allies like TEA and CELA started a Heat safety group 2 years ago pushing for a max heat bylaw. The short term demand by ACORN was free AC units for vulnerable tenants, seniors and more. Well this was last month but we won over 3000 AC units for the most in need, PLUS just this week we were able to work with councillor allies to force a report back to council AND a motion approved on the floor to ensure the bylaw will come back before next summer.