Toronto Housing issues eviction notices to hundreds of Parkdale tenants

There is a troubling silence surrounding Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s (TCHC) “relocation” of hundreds of Parkdale tenants from the 144-unit building at 300 Dufferin. Only 30 tenants remain after TCHC issued eviction notices to all tenants. The building will be demolished.

Last year, TCHC announced that all tenants would be relocated for three years while the building’s exterior wall is replaced, which TCHC says is water damaged. In June, TCHC issued N13 eviction notices for extensive renovations to all tenants in the building and held a lottery ball draw to assign tenants relocation units scattered throughout the city. Tenants report that as of early October, only around 40 tenants still remain at the building. TCHC claims that tenants will have the option to return to 300 Dufferin once the work is completed in December 2029.

Should we believe them? In 2022, TCHC displaced hundreds from Swansea Mews after a ceiling collapsed, injuring a tenant. TCHC said the relocation would be temporary. Only after most tenants agreed to move did TCHC reveal that the plan was to redevelop. Many tenants were relocated to low quality units far away from friends, families, and neighbours. Some tenants even had to pay higher rent for inferior units. Three years later, TCHC has fenced off, boarded up, and abandoned the townhouses just as it abandoned the former tenants of Swansea Mews.

The TCHC Playbook

We all know what happened in Regent Park and Lawrence Heights. TCHC wrote the playbook: let the buildings crumble, move the tenants out, and sell the land to private developers. Many relocated tenants never returned to their homes. These “revitalization” projects are deliberate and planned. According to TCHC (and as reported in the Toronto Star) the most neglected TCHC properties, like buildings at Queen and Sherbourne, are located where land values are highest.

Clearly, the removal of tenants from 300 Dufferin to redevelop the land fits with the city’s vision for King and Dufferin where condos and high priced rentals are going up. Politicians and housing experts who talk nonsense about the benefits of so-called “mixed” neighbourhoods have no interest in keeping 300 Dufferin tenants in the mix. And Toronto’s new renoviction by-law we have heard so much about? Conveniently, the by-law states that it does not cover units controlled by TCHC.

Controlling tenant opposition

On September 25, 2024, TCHC held a closed, captive audience meeting at the Masaryk-Cowan. They were so worried about pushback from people in Parkdale that they checked IDs at the door—only people named on current leases at 300 Dufferin were allowed in. Despite the controlled environment, a group of our neighbours from 300 Dufferin bravely delivered a petition signed by dozens of their fellow tenants, demanding that TCHC do repairs in a way that allows tenants to stay in their homes. TCHC General Manager John Kraljevic shut down the petitioners and said the decision to relocate tenants was final. At the June 11 lottery draw for relocation units, TCHC revealed that there are only ten units available in Parkdale. 

Since 2016, Parkdale has lost 6 percent of its total population and evictions are a big reason why. We have already lost too many neighbours so that the private companies who own most of the buildings in Parkdale can deliver profits to their investors. We cannot afford to lose hundreds more to advance TCHC’s redevelopment plans.