75 SPENCER RENT STRIKE VICTORY: RENT INCREASE CANCELLED

Our neighbours at 75 Spencer are celebrating a rent strike victory. Metcap has conceded to tenants’ demand and withdrawn the above guideline rent increase (AGI). 

The 75 Spencer rent strike won because tenants did the thing that everyone talks about but almost no one does: they formed an independent working-class organization, stepped outside of legal and political convention, and directly confronted their landlord. They refused to be channeled into bureaucratic and political dead-ends. And for doing so, they received the support of other working-class people in Parkdale. This is the kind of authentic organizing that forces concessions from class enemies and builds working-class power. 

Eighteen months ago, tenants held their first lobby meeting and committed to fighting the AGI. Tenants agreed that the AGI was unacceptable because it threatened to price them out of their homes and neighbourhood. Over the next year, they held meetings, reached out to neighbours door to door, and brought delegations from the building to Metcap’s offices to press their demand. When Metcap failed to even meaningfully acknowledge their concerns, tenants took the decision to go on rent strike. This decision reflected our neighbours’ determination to defend their homes as well as their knowledge and memory of the successful 2017 Parkdale rent strike against AGIs sought by Metcap.

On March 1, around 30 units in the 72-unit building began withholding rent payments until Metcap withdrew the AGI. Instead of negotiating, Metcap issued eviction notices to tenants. In response, tenants began turning up at the homes of the building’s owners, the Chung family. Tenants at other Parkdale buildings made phone calls and sent emails to the building owners in support of the rent strikers. Parkdale teachers held protests in support of their students’ parents on rent strike. 

But then, on May 4, the building was sold to a new owner in Montreal with Metcap staying on as property manager. When tenants’ repeated attempts to contact the new owner went unanswered, they drove to Montreal and knocked on her door. Despite refusing to speak to tenants, the owner’s legal representative reached out hours later and agreed to direct Metcap to withdraw the AGI. On Wednesday, Metcap confirmed the withdrawal.