Toronto Star: Toronto Mayor John Tory says he is working to bring renters hard hit by pandemic ‘some relief’

This week could bring some reprieve for renters in Toronto hit with the economic fall-out of the pandemic.

 

Mayor John Tory is planning to talk to landlords Monday and has been in discussions with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, which the city owns.

 

“I will gather major landlords and their representative associations on a conference call on Monday to explore ways to achieve my previously expressed desire to see tenants who need it given some leniency on their rents,” Tory said in an email Sunday, “especially if they have been recently displaced from jobs by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

“There will be many tenants both inside and outside TCHC who will be hurt by current economic conditions, and we will work with private sector landlords and TCHC to achieve a result which will bring some relief for both groups.”

 

Organizations such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, have been calling for a temporary rent-free period for all renters and an immediate freeze on all rent rates, as well as numerous other measures to help Canadians through the pandemic.

 

“Mortgage deferrals are great for homeowners, but what about tenants?” wrote Marva Burnett, president of ACORN Canada in a statement. “We’re in the middle of the worst housing crisis in North America and now people are scared to work or getting laid off. We need a rent break or families are going to end up homeless when this is over.”

 

ACORN is a national organization of low-and moderate-income families. It has advocated for minimum wage increases and better building standards for apartments, among other things. It says 53 per cent of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque.

 

One tenant, who pays market rent in a Toronto Community Housing building, is one of them.