Springhurst Tenants Organize Against Eviction

On Saturday, March 30, our neighbours at 1 Springhurst and their supporters delivered a letter to landlord Ryan Rakowski at his Forrest Hill home. Rakowski is trying raise tenants’ rents by more than 8% to pay for repair work that was needed after years of neglect. Our neighbours can’t afford this huge increase.

When our neighbours tried to meet with Rakowski at his office he refused to speak to them. Then he hired a lawyer to send out eviction notices to tenants for what he alleges was an “uninvited” visit to his office.

Rakowski thinks he can price working-class tenants out of their homes in Parkdale. He thinks he can harass and intimidate his tenants with bogus eviction notices. Today, our neighbours showed up with Parkdale Organize to show Rakowski that we are not intimidated and we are not going anywhere.

We demand that Ryan Rakowski withdraw the evictions and withdraw the rent increase by no later than April 5. Should he not meet our demands we are prepared to take further action to defend our neigbours’ home.