Press Hits

Thursday’s demonstration is the second this year by tenants of the 200-plus-unit building west of downtown, who say for years now they have had to deal with pest infestations and other concerns that have gone unaddressed by the city-run London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH). “We’re not here to just be antagonistic, but we also have to stress that they’re not doing a good enough job,” said Jordan Smith, a local leader with tenants’ group ACORN, which helped set up the demonstration. “I appreciate that (LMCH) has a very difficult job, and I also appreciate, quite frankly, that they are underfunded. But this gallery the tenants are sharing is to show what they’re dealing with in their homes, so that the public can see and really put it into perspective . . . It needs to be fixed.”

The rental market across Brampton and Mississauga is agonizing—residents have long complained about the unsanitary and unsafe living conditions, despite significant demand for units. A survey of 257 tenants conducted by ACORN Canada (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), between May and June, revealed the disturbing reality many renters in Peel have to deal with. From pest infestations to breathing in mold regularly, poor ventilation in the kitchen and bathrooms, broken ceilings to damaged closets and unsanitized carpets, the litany of nightmarish scenarios was hard to fathom in a country like Canada.

When Nelda Giroux received an N13 eviction notice from the landlord of her west-end apartment building last summer, citing the need for renovations, she knew she had no choice but to fight it. Otherwise, she says, she would have ended up on the street. “At my age, I didn’t want to be homeless.” Residents of her building fought and won the right to stay in their building, joining the tenants’ rights group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The organization advocates for tenants’ rights and has campaigned for policies to prevent illegal renovictions – such as when a landlord issues an eviction notice, saying extensive renovations are needed, and then puts the unit on the market at a higher rent, whether or not the renovations have been completed.

Extreme heat is endangering students, workers, renters and some of Ontario’s most vulnerable residents, a network of civil society groups said Monday as they urged the province to better prepare for sweltering temperatures. Tenant protections figured prominently into Monday’s calls to action. The network called on the province to pass maximum temperature regulations to ensure landlords keep temperatures below 26 C in rental units. The proposals have sparked concerns about whether landlords would use air conditioning upgrades as a pretext for evictions or steep rent increases. Monday’s call to action says to ensure tenants are protected, the province should expand retrofit funding and tie it to anti-eviction conditions. “We don’t have time to wait anymore. We are in a heat crisis,” said Marcia Stone with the tenant rights group ACORN.

Tantramar residents say the wildfires and extreme heat this week only heightened their concerns about how a natural gas plant N.B. Power wants to build in the area would affect their health. Peter Jongeneelen, co-chair of ACORN, a tenant advocacy group for people with low to moderate incomes, worries the gas plant will worsen air quality. “Well the carbon emissions — the CO2 emissions — if I can barely breathe in extreme heat and wildfire smoke … what is this adding to it?” he said. Sylvain Comeau, a climate activist, said he’s concerned about the plant, especially if forest fires are burning in New Brunswick, which is the case now. “Especially with the forest fires happening all over New Brunswick, I wanted to come here and advocate for greener alternatives,” Comeau said.

Nearly 30 per cent of tenants in Peel Region surveyed by the low- and moderate-income renters advocacy group ACORN have dealt with cockroaches in their units, while more than 30 per cent said their units were too hot in the summer. The group is calling on city councils in Brampton and Mississauga to do more to protect renters, though spokespersons for both municipalities say work is already underway.