Letters to the Editor: Protection of affordable rentals is key to solving housing crisis

Open Letter to Toronto Council regarding Ontario’s Bill 60:

Don Valley Community Legal Services (DVCLS) is a community legal clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario. Our catchment area includes Wards 14 (Toronto-Danforth), 15 (Don Valley West), 16 (Don Valley East) and 19 (Beaches-East York), and sections of Wards 11 (University-Rosedale) and 12 (Toronto-St. Paul’s).

We serve many diverse communities and our clients are lower-income, racialized, and primarily renters.

We are very concerned about Bill 60 which was recently passed by the provincial government.

More than one third of our cases at DVCLS are housing related and we mainly help tenants facing eviction. We assist some of the most vulnerable and marginalized residents of Toronto, helping them keep their homes so they do not end up in an already overwhelmed shelter system.

We were pleased to see Mayor Olivia Chow address Bill 60 and voice concerns about the proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). We applaud the City of Toronto’s Executive Committee for approving the recommendations put forward and we are pleased that Toronto Council did the same at its November meeting.

We have been appreciative of the actions the City of Toronto has taken in the past to help renters, such as supporting programs like RentSafeTO, EPIC, MURA, and Rent Bank, and implementing the Rental Renovation License Bylaw (“Renovictions Bylaw”). We have seen the difference these programs and bylaws make in our clients’ lives.

We must protect the affordable rental units we already have if we want to solve the housing crisis.

Bill 60 will make it easier to evict tenants and make it harder for them to fight evictions at the Landlord and Tenant Board. This Bill makes it harder for us at the legal clinic to assist tenants and help preserve their homes.

We strongly encourage Toronto councillors to continue advocating for renters.

We would like to note the following items which would significantly improve the lives of tenants across Toronto and Ontario:

• Oppose changes that weaken tenants’ rights and security of tenure or a further weakening of rent control.
• Reinstate full rent control on all buildings.
• Reintroduce vacancy control.
• End illicit renovictions and help tenants facing renoviction.
• Amend Above Guideline Increase (AGI) rules.
• Allow tenants the right to in-person Landlord and Tenant Board hearings.

We would also like to acknowledge that bringing this to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) for information and joint advocacy is an important step.

We have seen several municipalities introducing renovictions bylaws in the absence of provincial political will to tackle this issue. We know municipal advocacy can make a difference and hope that a large number of municipalities opposing Bill 60 will impact the province.

We thank Toronto Council for its efforts to date to help tenants. In a growing housing crisis and affordability crisis, now is not the time to weaken protections for tenants or expedite evictions. We hope the province will listen to advocates and municipalities, and walk back Bill 60.

Marjorie Hiley
Executive Director
Don Valley Community
Legal Services