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Members of an advocacy group stormed Premier Dalton McGuinty’s constituency office on Wednesday, urging him to cap rent hikes.<\/p>\nMembers of an advocacy group stormed Premier Dalton McGuinty’s constituency office on Wednesday, urging him to cap rent hikes.<\/p>\n
About 30 members of ACORN argued landlords shouldn’t be allowed to raise rents beyond 3.1% in between tenants.<\/p>\n
Tina Morris said she recently lived in a frigid, ill-maintained flat. After she moved out, she was astonished to find it renting for $400 more than she had paid.<\/p>\n
“And he didn’t fix anything,” she said. “The landlords right now, they can take their vacant apartments and raise the rent as much as they like.”<\/p>\n
That can create motivation for landlords to drive out low-income tenants.<\/p>\n
“The rents are going up and up,” Morris said.<\/p>\n
Low vacancy rates — 1.4% last year and an expected 1.2% in 2012 — have helped keep rent in Ottawa at above the national average.<\/p>\n
Members of an advocacy group stormed Premier Dalton McGuinty’s constituency office on Wednesday, urging him to cap rent hikes.<\/p>\n
About 30 members of ACORN argued landlords shouldn’t be allowed to raise rents beyond 3.1% in between tenants.<\/p>\n
Tina Morris said she recently lived in a frigid, ill-maintained flat. After she moved out, she was astonished to find it renting for $400 more than she had paid.<\/p>\n
“And he didn’t fix anything,” she said. “The landlords right now, they can take their vacant apartments and raise the rent as much as they like.”<\/p>\n
That can create motivation for landlords to drive out low-income tenants.<\/p>\n
“The rents are going up and up,” Morris said.<\/p>\n
Low vacancy rates — 1.4% last year and an expected 1.2% in 2012 — have helped keep rent in Ottawa at above the national average.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At $1,086 in 2011, the city’s average rent was the third-highest in the country, with the average Ottawa bachelor flat going for $727, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported.<\/p>\n
Morris, who receives provincial disability payments, hasn’t noticed any significant increase in her cheques to offset soaring rent rates.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people don’t have options,” she said.<\/p>\n
The door to McGuinty’s constituency office was locked, but a handful of protesters were granted a private audience with a McGuinty representative.<\/p>\n
In an e-mailed statement, Housing Minister Kathleen Wynne’s office noted the provincial Liberals have spent $2.5 billion on affordable housing since 2003.<\/p>\n
And in June, the government put a 2.5% cap on the rent increase guideline, meaning landlords must get approval from the Landlord and Tenant Board to hike rents by greater amounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":652,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","front_page_slider":[],"campaigns":[],"featured_news":[],"class_list":["post-653","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front_page_slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/front_page_slider?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"campaigns","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaigns?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"featured_news","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_news?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}