VICTORY for Tenants – Unanimous Support for ACORN’s RentSafe Campaign at Toronto City Council

On November 26th & 27th over 20 ACORN members made it down to Toronto City Hall at 9 AM to witness, pressure and ensure that tenants’ right to safe and healthy housing was enforced by our politicians. Over 2 years ago Toronto ACORN members won a historic victory in tenant protections, through the creation of the RentSafeTO bylaw – which created a proactive city-wide apartment inspection and enforcement program. RentSafe was supposed to include a rating system, new financial penalties, operating standards for bylaw officers as well as a new tenant engagement program.

 

Unfortunately that didn’t happen, and instead over the past 2 years Toronto has seen 2 major apartment fires which has displaced hundreds of tenants. Not to mention landlords not doing repairs, long-term tenants being harassed out of their homes and the slow destruction of what remains of Toronto’s affordable housing.

 

Today ACORN members demonstrated the power of a city-wide tenants union, which organizes door by door, building by building and run by members; with no reliance on money from big business or government. ACORN members scored another win on the Healthy Homes campaign. Toronto landlords will now be held responsible for providing stable housing for tenants during emergencies, and council has strengthened the RentSafe program in other ways that ACORN members will be making sure are implemented.