The scorching temperatures have inspired tenant advocacy group ACORN Ottawa to fight for a heat bylaw. A report from the organization found that around half of low-to-moderate income tenants lack air conditioning, with affordability as the root cause. Out of all respondents, 54 per cent said extreme heat was their top housing issue.
When a Dieppe-based holding company bought an apartment building in central Moncton earlier this year, low-income tenants learned that the new owner was no longer accepting rent subsidies from NB Housing. That meant those low-income residents at 320 St. George Street would either have to pay market prices or leave. The new landlord cleared out about half of the tenants and began renovations. Now, the same landlord is trying to remove the remaining tenants in order to renovate their homes — and convert them into subsidized housing units. By Friday, authorities had rejected at least one of those termination notices, saying it violated the Residential Tenancies Act.
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Hamilton ACORN members joined counterparts in other Ontario cities — Toronto, Ottawa, London, Kitchener and Brampton — to call for an immediate doubling of ODSP and Ontario Works (OW). “ODSP equals poverty,” Davignon chanted through a megaphone, before he and others handed a letter listing their demands to a manager in the Ellen Fairclough Building. Nonetheless, he considers himself “lucky” to have his $850-a-month room in a shared accommodation given the going rents in other buildings, Davignon said in an interview. That’s well below the average rent for a vacant one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton, which was $1,790 in August
Hamilton city council is set to require landlords of units with air conditioners to maintain a maximum temperature of 26 C — but a long-awaited “adequate temperature” bylaw for all rental units is still to come. Councillors at the city’s planning committee voted unanimously last week to require landlords who have provided air conditioning (AC) to keep it in good repair — and able to keep the apartment unit’s temperature below 26 C. The decision is to be ratified by council Wednesday.
ACORN members staged a “Poverty Picnic” in London Ont., Tuesday afternoon, setting out empty plates to symbolize how low social assistance rates leave families struggling to eat. “The poverty picnic is essentially a picnic with no food at it because the reality is a vast majority of us are skipping meals,” said Jordan Smith, an ACORN member. The demonstration took place across cities in Ontario, demanding the provincial government double social assistance rates. “The disabled in Ontario are really, right now, struggling 60 per cent below the poverty line,” said Smith. ACORN representatives said a single person on the Ontario Disability Support Program receives a maximum of $1,408 a month. Meantime, Ontario Works (OW) rates have been frozen since 2018.
