Press Hits

Tenants of a Guelph apartment complex are celebrating a “huge victory” after a year fraught with worry during a battle to remain in their homes. Last summer, residents in 4, 6 and 8 Brant Ave. found themselves in a legal tangle with notorious renovictor Michael Klein, after a corporation he’s tied to purchased the complex. Klein is a figure associated with numerous other renoviction cases across the province, including in Cambridge and Toronto. Earlier this year, he was dubbed “Ontario’s biggest renovictor” by the tenant advocacy group ACORN, and linked to 21 buildings across Ontario that house an estimated 1,750 tenants.

The City of Kitchener took the first step in implementing a renoviction bylaw to thwart “unscrupulous” landlords on Monday. Pivoting away from a staff recommendation for a more passive approach toward renoviction — which is a forced eviction of a tenant for renovations — by forming a Landlord-Tenant Forum and creating educational tools for landlords and tenants, the planning and strategic initiatives committee voted 6-3 Monday in favour of forming a rental renovation licensing bylaw.

The city of Toronto is drafting a bylaw that would require landlords to keep indoor temperatures at or below 26 degrees during heat warnings, but it won’t go to council until late this year. The city says addressing excessive indoor heat is a complex issue that involves balancing affordability, health, the environment, and the needs of both tenants and landlords. East York ACORN member Christena Abbott talks about the debilitating effects of extreme heat and the urgent need for strong maximum heat bylaw in the Canadian Press.

After a long night of discussions, a Kitchener committee voted to move forward with plans to create a bylaw targeting renovictions. Protestors gathered outside Kitchener City Hall for the Planning and Strategic Initiative Committee meeting on Monday night. The group called on the committee to commit to developing a renovictions bylaw, despite a recommendation from staff not to do so. They held signs with slogans such as ‘Bylaw or Bye-Bye!’ and ‘We aren’t moving. No renoviction.’

Monique Gordon’s second-floor apartment in Rexdale is sweltering hot all year-round — even in the winter. She keeps track of the temperature in her home with a small digital thermometer and records it as proof. Recently, on a cool, rainy 20 C afternoon, her unit was 27.3 C, an indoor temperature that’s unsafe to live in, health experts and environmental advocates say. Gordon, who is chair of ACORN’s Etobicoke chapter, has lung granulomas. Paired with the heat, it makes it difficult to breathe. “Thank God, I don’t have any asthma because I don’t think I’d be able to make it through with the heat,” Gordon told CBC Toronto.

Several groups and residents attended the City of Hamilton’s General Issues Committee meeting Wednesday, disappointed and frustrated with councillors. Emotions ran high as many people, each with different concerns, appeared at the meeting to express their disappointment in the city, and to urge council to listen and learn. From striking workers, to Hamilton’s homelessness crisis, and the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) charging people with disabilities to ride the bus. “The city is not built for us, and we need more help from you,” said one person who attended the council meeting.