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Landlord Licensing in Toronto
“I live in a building with 300 units and if there wasn’t a polling station I just wouldn’t vote. There are too many places that are not accessible. To get in and out of a place that has stairs is impossible, and that essentially takes away my ability to vote.”
$100,000,000.00 in repairs by landlords and inspectors sent to all 5,000+ of the city's high-rise buildings.
That's what 6 years of tenant organizing by Toronto ACORN and countless hours of dedicated members have earned.
The City brought in an enhanced apartment inspection program developed after pressure from Toronto ACORN and tenant groups late last year and now estimate it has resulted in $100 millions in repairs by landlords. Further, Municipal Licensing and Standards is now sending inspectors to all 5,000+ highrises across Toronto to perform basic audits to find and target the worst buildings for increased inspections.
The program falls short of the comprehensive system of landlord licensing that Toronto ACORN has long campaigned. Toronto ACORN members have fought for a system with hard financial penalties on negligent landlords who refuse to maintain their buildings up the legal code. Toronto ACORN members have held community actions, rallied at city hall, given deputations, and held city wide housing forums to build public support and awareness of the Toronto’s deteriorating housing stock and the need for reform.
ACORN members remain proud of this tremendous progress that has been made and remain committed to working with the City to expand and improve the enhanced inspection program.
On March 20th, Toronto ACORN held a forum with community leaders from across the city to renew our commitment to winning a proactive system of apartment inspection in the city. ACORN members described to the 100+ person audience the long history of our housing campaigns in Toronto and the progress we’ve made up to this point.
At the municipal level, 7 City Councillors attended the event and all signed on to support the levying of a tenant protection fee on large landlords to fund a proactive inspection regime. Further, they committed to support a motion coming before Council on March 31st that aims to ensure tenant input into any new apartment inspection system.
Unlike previous housing forums held by ACORN, this event included representatives from the Provincial government in support of enhancing provincial support for tenants.
Toronto ACORN is pursuing a meeting with the Minister of Housing, Jim Bradley to discuss our recommendation for provincial enhancements of the laws regulating apartment standards and new tools the municipalities could use to ensure fair housing for tenants.
Toronto ACORN is leading the city wide campaign to fix rental housing.
Last year the city launched a new inspection regime as a result of a multi-year campaign by Toronto ACORN, tenant groups and our allies on city council. While this program has seen some results – it’s also further exposed the extent of the problem.
Toronto tenants continue to be forced to endure bed bugs, mold, poor maintenance and other abuses, largely at the hands of a handful of large corporate landlords.
As a next step in Toronto ACORN’s campaign to see the city expand and improve the existing program we are holding a City Wide Forum to rally tenants and announce new supporters of the campaign.
WHAT: Livable Housing Forum
WHEN: Saturday, March 20th, Noon
WHERE: Main Square Community Centre (245 Main St. just south of Danforth ave.)
But the next 16 months leading up the municipal election are going to decide whether Toronto City Council is interested in improving standards for tenants or simply letting the status quo remain.
Today, Toronto ACORN is announcing a plan to escalate this campaign.
In the coming months every City Councilor will have a chance to vote on an ACORN-backed proposal to levy a fee on large landlords to fund pro-active apartment inspections.
Toronto ACORN is pledging to use this vote as a yardstick to identify a number of key ridings to run aggressive campaigns to increase the tenant voter turnout by 25% in support of councilors or candidates who support tenants.
But we need our supporters online to send a message to council and let them know we’re serious. Can you help? (Just click the link below)
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