With hundreds of tenants in the city of Kitchener currently facing renoviction, local residents and housing advocates presented their case to city council on Monday night to fast-track by-laws to protect renters from landlords who use renovations as an excuse to evict tenants and increase rental prices.
Kitchener council is debating when they can start considering a report on a potential renoviction bylaw, but residents say the delay could cost them their homes. CTV’s Colton Wiens reports.
Kitchener city councillors were forced to face the harsh reality many of their citizens are facing as they discussed the potential of a renoviction bylaw. Council was considering a staff report outlining how long it could take to come up with a comprehensive document examining renoviction bylaws in other Ontario municipalities.
Ottawa city council passed a motion to research a potential bylaw which would address the city’s growing issue of “renovictions.” Renovictions occur when a landlord evicts a tenant to complete major renovations on the leased property. Oftentimes, the property is redeveloped for the purpose of attracting higher paying commercial and residential tenants.
William Gillis, of ACORN, an advocacy group for low and moderate income renters, says complaints like Bradley’s are nothing new, they happen every time there’s a cold snap. “So one of the things we help tenants with is that there is a legal minimum for temperature set by the Residential Tenancy Act,” said Gillis.
Tenant advocates are hoping to make further reforms as New Brunswick’s three per cent rent cap takes effect this Saturday. Nichola Taylor, the chair of NB ACORN, expressed relief at the upcoming implementation of the rent cap, highlighting the hardships many tenants have faced due to steep rent increases in recent years. “It is a sense of relief and a breath of fresh air that we finally have this rent cap in place,” Taylor said.
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