Press Hits

ACORN, a tenants’ rights advocacy group, invited residents of Waterloo Region to a community town hall on Saturday with the goal of providing a platform for residents to share the challenges they’re facing, brainstorm solutions, and help determine ACORN’s priorities for 2025. “We don’t want people to think we’re just [focusing on] renovictions,” Ryan Murdock, secretary for Waterloo Region ACORN told CTV News. “It’s an important aspect, but everything we do is member led, member driven.”

A housing advocacy group is trying to get a better overall picture of the issues renters and low-income earners face in the region. They’ve been fighting against renovictions across the province, after seeing a rise in issues since the Ontario government removed rent control on buildings built in 2018 or after.

Residents and advocates in Kitchener are pleading with city council to take action against landlords who are using renovations as an excuse to evict them from their homes in order to turn a profit. The process is known as a renoviction when a landlord evicts a tenant by claiming they will complete renovations, which range from complete overhauls to a simple paint job. The price of the unit will often increase, sometimes dramatically, when the landlord begins to search for a new tenant.

La semaine dernière, un comité municipal avait rejeté un rapport de l’administration municipale qui déconseillait l’adoption d’un tel règlement. Elle indiquait que les relations entre propriétaires et locataires relèvent de la compétence provinciale et que la mise en œuvre et l’application d’un tel règlement pourraient s’avérer coûteuses. Le nombre d’avis d’expulsion a bondi de 483 % en 5 ans et plusieurs organismes de défense des locataires, comme l’ACORN,
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now se sont mobilisés pour demander à la Ville d’agir.

The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) is cautioning that Calgary’s housing market could be impacted by tariffs imposed by Donald Trump. CREB released its 2025 regional housing market forecast for Calgary on Tuesday. The report serves as an in-depth analysis of the housing market, highlighting key trends and economic factors expected to shape 2025.

Despite renoviction requests in Ottawa having almost quintupled in the last six years, city staff have recommended delaying a bylaw that would require landlords to justify evicting tenants. A staff report which was to be discussed at Planning and Housing Committee this Wednesday acknowledged that “it is highly probable that unlawful evictions are occurring in the community.”