Press Hits

Forty-one days after their gas was shut off, tenants of a central Hamilton apartment building are still taking cold showers and cooking on hot plates — or not at all. This isn’t the building’s only issue — tenants have also been without air conditioning since early May. Tenants were told Valour was waiting on a part that would take six to eight weeks to arrive — “pretty much the whole summer,” said Alysia Adamczyk.Last week, residents formed a tenants’ union with help from advocacy group Hamilton ACORN. They’ve requested a meeting with Valour to present their demands, which include compensation for food, extra hydro, appliances purchased and emotional toll.

As another scorching summer settles over the nation’s capital, a tenant advocacy group is renewing its urge the city implements a maximum heat bylaw to protect tenants from unsafe indoor temperatures. A new report from ACORN found that in Ottawa, close to half of low-to-moderate income tenants lack air conditioning, largely due to affordability. Fifty-four per cent reported extreme heat as their top housing issue. ACORN is calling for a bylaw that caps indoor temperatures at 26 C, similar to minimum heat requirements in winter. The City of Ottawa currently mandates landlords maintain heating at 20 C during the day in colder months but has no regulation setting a maximum temperature during the summer.

Tenants at 27 Bold St. have been without gas since May 24, when it was shut off after a retaining wall fell into the building. Then, on June 12, the building’s central air stopped working — an amenity they were promised when moving in. Tenants were offered “$350 credit to fund the purchase of portable air conditioners.” But Thorne and Alexander, who have been coordinating with other tenants and advocacy group Hamilton ACORN, said most tenants did not accept it, as the amount wouldn’t cover a unit that could cool their spaces.

Health and safety hazards are part of daily life in Golden Triangle neighbourhood. Paige Nicks, another long-time resident of the building, described the chaos that unfolded shortly after the new owners took over. “They tried to change our locks, which they’re not allowed to do. Then came eviction threats and even legal notices. It’s been relentless,” Nicks said. Nicks says she has since joined the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a grassroots community group that advocates for low- and moderate-income families, focusing on issues like affordable housing. The tenants established an organizing committee in the building and are working towards systemic reforms, including stronger bylaws against renovictions.

An anti-poverty activist in Moncton was hospitalized for heat exhaustion on Tuesday, just before NB ACORN launched a campaign demanding “A/C for all.” Peter Jongeneelen, co-chair of NB ACORN – a grassroots association of low-to-moderate income people – was recovering at home by Wednesday after being released from hospital. He told the NB Media Co-op that a clause in his lease prohibits window A/C units.

Michelle Arsenault and her family went to the splash pad in Centennial Park a day after the first scorcher of the summer. The world gets hotter every single year and it gets more and more difficult for low- and moderate-income people to just live, to exist in their homes without it being an active health risk,” said ACORN member Sawyer MacNaughton. The group would like to see barriers that prevent tenants from installing cooling devices in their units removed.