With a decade-long repair backlog and thousands of complaints, 500 Dawes Road has become one of Toronto’s most notorious rental buildings. Brandon Choghri joins Mayor Olivia Chow on a tour, as she vows to fix the apartments plagued with issues.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow toured a troubled apartment building with tenants who say their landlord has long ignored repair orders. Chow is vowing action and pushing for a broader plan to hold landlords accountable. Matthew Bingley reports.
After visiting Patricia Stanford and other tenants in one of Toronto’s most notorious rental buildings, Mayor Olivia Chow vowed Tuesday to get help for her and other people living in “unacceptable” conditions. “Half of the City of Toronto are tenants, they are not homeowners,” Chow said before tenants’ rights group ACORN gave her a tour of 500 Dawes Road, an apartment tower in East York. “They have the right to live a decent life in a clean, safe environment and I’m going to support the tenants so they don’t feel so alone.” Stanford was one of three residents on different floors visited by Chow. Most belongings in her 11th floor apartment were in plastic bags to keep them away from rodents who invaded the unit last year, she said, and chew things, urinate and defecate despite spring traps throughout the small unit. Council years ago rejected a push for the mandatory posting of red, yellow and green signs in building lobbies amid concerns they would stigmatize the residents of buildings with poor maintenance records. Chow, who seconded Matlow’s motion, said she agrees with ACORN that the signs could pressure landlords to improve the cleanliness and safety of their buildings to avoid yellow or red signs that could scare away tenants.
As an Ottawa MPP puts forward a plan to require Ontario landlords to provide renters with air conditioning, one representative for local landlords says building owners will need support for expensive and time-consuming upgrades. Youssouf has worked with the City of Ottawa on this issue for the Ottawa branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Landlords have a responsibility to work with those levels of government too, he argued, so that the costs aren’t simply passed down to those who can least afford them: the renters. “We know that landlords are rich people,” he said, adding that even those who own a small or old building are “well-off. If they invest in their buildings and their homes, it’s good for them in the long run and it’s good for the people who live there.”
On July 14, London’s ACORN tenant organizing group held its first “Slumlord of the Year” awards ceremony, a mock award ceremony to call attention to what their survey-based data suggests are some of the city’s worst landlords. Their aim is to encourage the city to hold these landlords accountable. Over the past several months, London ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), a tenant advocacy group, conducted a survey of tenants across the city, gathering around 80 responses. Complete with tenant testimonials and bronze, silver, and gold “slumlord” trophies to give to landlords across the city, the awards ceremony called out those with the worst scores.
Canada’s Capital was struck down with yet another Summer heatwave this week, as humidex temperatures teetered towards 40 degrees Celsius. It is harkening back to several predictions from Canadian meteorologists, who predicted a hotter-than-normal Summer forecast. So what are the best ways to stay cool during these circumstances? What can our province or local governments do to help out? Hassan Youssouf, who leads ACORN’s Beat The Heat Campaign, joins Andrew Pinsent on CFRA Live.
