“Parkdale has already lost a lot”: A tenant from 300 Dufferin speaks

Parkdale Organize interviewed Maylin, a tenant at 300 Dufferin.

I have lived at 300 Dufferin for the past 12 years, since July 2012. Altogether, I’ve been in Parkdale for 23 years. I don’t like moving. Before, I lived across the street at 345 Dufferin and then on Laxton. The landlord on Laxton wanted to demolish the house but I didn’t want to leave the neighbourhood and I found a place here. 

300 Dufferin has everything I need: backyard, parking, and the neighbours are great. Beverley, the super, I have a beautiful relationship with her. Don’t get me wrong, we have a lot of issues here, but it’s us. I know my neighbours, we help each other. I tutor my neighbour’s son for free, neighbours have watched my son for me. Sometimes tenants don’t have money for food and we help each other. The single moms do barbeques where the kids play while the moms are cooking. There are homeless people who come to the building and we help them. This is my paradise, this is where I want to live for the rest of my life.

I’m an immigrant. I’ve never left Parkdale because Parkdale keeps me grounded. It’s the vibe. I like to help people and I like to live where people need me. Where I can make a difference. That’s Parkdale. I’ve gone to the same grocery store for 23 years. Neighbours have seen my son grow up. Some of their kids were my students when I taught at Parkdale Collegiate and Central Tech. This is my community. 

When I moved into this building I was paying market rent. It wasn’t affordable. I did all my undergraduate studies here and I’m a single mother. I went through a rough patch when I couldn’t pay my rent. Toronto Community Housing (TCH) offered me a subsidy. Of course they increase the rent every year but that’s everywhere. They’re raising the price of the parking, but it’s been pretty good. They helped me when I was in need. 

Last year TCH announced, I don’t know if eviction is the word because they say you can move back, but I don’t believe that. TCH held a meeting for tenants at the community centre. They told us we are all being moved out. They completely dismissed the opinions of the tenants. They said, “This is what it is, take it or leave it.” Tenants tried to deliver a petition and they completely dismissed us. They haven’t heard our voices at all. 

At the meeting TCH showed us how the building is going to be when the work is finished. We asked if they could do the renovations with us living here. They said that is impossible because they are removing the building façades completely, front and back. They say there is leaking and water damage that’s been going on for a long time. It didn’t make sense. I’ve been here 12 years and nothing has leaked. They told us that by March 2025 they will be moving people out of the building. March has passed and we haven’t heard anything more.

I don’t believe what TCH is saying. I’m seeing what’s going on in Parkdale. You see all the condos around and the updates in the neighbourhood. Our building looks old. I think they are going to renovate it and charge higher rents. Or they’re going to bring the building down and build something else. I don’t think they need to do these renovations.

At the meeting, TCH said they would give us two choices for relocation, $50 to change addresses, and pay for moving trucks. But I haven’t received any notification. I don’t know if other tenants had heard anything. I asked them a simple question. I have a car. What if I go to a building where I have to park on the street after having underground parking for 12 years? They couldn’t answer that question. We got a notification at our door saying they will hold a lottery for the relocation but no other information. They said they are going to do a lottery draw.

What I noticed is this. After the TCH’s meeting, tenants were divided. TCH is approaching people individually. Though they haven’t contacted me. Tenants had an impulse to do a petition but since then they shut down. Tenants have not held meetings or talked about it. TCH really dismissed tenants at that meeting. They sent a strong message and now people feel like there is nothing we can do to stop this. People are discouraged.

Being relocated for three years, moving me out of my community of 23 years, it hurts. I work at a school at Jane and Lawrence. Where am I going to end up? My favorite school to work at is here in Parkdale and they are trying to bring me back, but now I don’t know. My son was born here, he went to Alexander Muir. It’s my community. 

There’s a lot of people living here with limitations. People with mobility issues. People with mental health issues. When you move to a new neighbourhood with those limitations you could be treated differently. Here, we have the tenant who screams, but he’s ours, we’re used to him. For people who have mental issues, moving them from their comfort zone could present issues. I could adapt. But someone with autism, that’s harder. I feel for them.

Parkdale has already lost a lot. Every time they bring something down and build up a condo we lose a lot. This will be another loss. A lot of people are here because TCHC gave them affordable housing here so if this building disappears it’s making people’s lives more difficult. That’s my thing. You have this organization, TCH, to help people who are struggling. How do you make them struggle more? Something doesn’t add up there. Maybe they are just getting rid of the building to put up a condo. How could you stop caring?

I would say that TCH should reconsider. Because I don’t think they took this lightly but if they could reconsider I think that would help tenants in this building. Do the repairs little by little. Relocate us within the building. For a long time I have noticed that people have been moving out but no one moves in, so for a while they have been vacating the building. They told us there are only around 100 units left out of 144 and the rest are already vacant. Why can’t they relocate us within the building? At this point, I don’t know. I think we’re hopeless. That’s why people stopped pushing back. TCH set it in stone. They said, “We are the owners. We do what we want with the building. You guys just have to move.” But when issues like this go bigger, go in the media, it might make them reconsider.

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.

Evan Johnsen and Neil Spiegel evicting Parkdale organizers

Organizers at 12 Lansdowne are being targeted for eviction in retaliation for their recent, successful campaign against renoviction.

In January 2022, Johnsen and Spiegel issued N13 eviction notices for extensive renovations to our neighbours at 12 Lansdowne. In response, tenants waged a public campaign to stop the evictions and won: in April, Johnsen and Spiegel withdrew the N13 notices. At the same time, the landlords withdrew the N5 and N6 notices they had issued against tenants who hung banners from their balconies in protest of the evictions.

However, in August, the landlords issued a new N5 against tenants in one particular unit at 12 Lansdowne. The N5 alleges that in October 2021 these tenants, who were central to the recent organizing against the renovictions, “substantially interfered” with the landlords. The tenants’ wrongdoing? Refusing to pay for the replacement of their unit door after it was broken in by the fire department when it responded to a suspected fire while the tenants were not at home.

Johnsen and Spiegel have dug up an incident from a full year ago to manufacture an eviction case against Parkdale organizers. The landlords claim that this is now the second N5 notice to be issued to these particular tenants in the past six months, the first N5 being the one which was issued to them about the banner hung from their balcony in March.

Despite having formally withdrawn the first N5, the landlords now claim that two N5 notices have been issued, legally enabling them to immediately file for eviction with the Landlord and Tenant Board. A date for the eviction hearing is likely to be set in 2023.

Parkdale tenants put new landlord on notice

Today our neighbours at 109 Jameson traveled to the Markham offices of property manager Briarlane to demand they improve conditions at their building. A Briarlane executive tried to undermine the group by insisting that he would only speak to one tenant in private. Our neighbours responded that he would have to meet with the whole group. After conceding to meeting with the group and accepting 50 demand letters from tenants living at the building. He then committed to addressing tenants’ issues immediately. Our neighbours intend to hold Briarlane to it.

In March, the midrise building at 109 Jameson was sold to Shafik Kassam, a landlord who owns other buildings in Parkdale and is known to Parkdale tenants. Like at his other Parkdale buildings, Kassam hired Briarlane as the property manager. Since they took over conditions at the building have become significantly worse. Basic cleaning and maintenance of common areas has not been kept up and tenants’ requests for repairs in their units have been ignored. 

To oppose the neglect of the new landlord, the building committee at 109 Jameson has been holding meetings and reaching out to their neighbours door to door. Today’s action was the culmination of many hours of work by working-class people in Parkdale who have committed to collectively defending and improving the conditions of their homes and neighbourhood.

Parkdale tenants beat renoviction

Our neighbours at 12 Lansdowne received confirmation that their landlords have withdrawn all eviction notices against them. This includes N13 eviction notices for extensive renovations and N5 and N6 eviction notices for illegal acts issued against tenants who hung banners from their balconies. The tenants’ long-term, proactive, and direct approach to organizing won the day. Congratulations to our neighbours! 

In the summer of 2020, Evan Johnsen and Neil Spiegel bought the 23-unit building at 12 Lansdowne in Parkdale. Tenants wasted no time in forming an organization at the building and they decided right then and there that they would collectively refuse the new landlords’ attempt to buy them out of their homes. Throughout the months of the pandemic, tenants continued to organize; they looked in after sick neighbours, got a neighbour back into his unit when he was locked out after a break in, and demanded repairs and pest control treatment from the landlord.

In January 2022, Johnsen and Spiegel tried to move ahead with their plan to evict the entire building by issuing N13 eviction notices but tenants were already prepared to fight back because they were organized. Tenants immediately responded by delivering a letter as a group to the landlords at their homes demanding that the eviction notices be withdrawn within one week. When the landlords did not meet their demand, tenants hung banners from their balconies and spoke out in the media. When the landlords retaliated by issuing eviction notices alleging that hanging banners is an illegal act, tenants held firm and continued to press their demands. When the tenants learned that their landlords meant to partner with a non-profit organization in order to raise rents on vacant units after clearing out the building using housing subsidies, tenants contacted the non-profit and backed them down from working with Johnsen and Spiegel. Despite the landlords’ attempts to single tenants out and to pick them off one by one, tenants remained united. Our neighbours at 12 Lansdowne know that organizing is what enables them to defend their homes. 

Renoviction Dropped

Chris is a worker in Parkdale who reached out to us after receiving an N13 eviction notice for extensive renovations from his landlord. In the notice the landlord claimed that some minor disrepair issues in the washroom required the whole room be demolished and that Chris and his daughter would have to move out for the work to be completed.

Chris was devastated when he learned his landlord intended to renovict him and his daughter. Having lived in the apartment for seven years and not being able to afford to move, Chris decided to fight the eviction.

Last weekend, Chris delivered a letter to his landlord at their home with a group of supporters including members of Parkdale Organize. We made it clear to the landlord that we were prepared to make Chris’ situation a more public issue if the eviction notice was not withdrawn within a week. Within 48 hours of the letter delivery Chris received confirmation in writing from the landlord that his eviction would no longer be pursued. Well done, Chris!

Here we think it is worth pointing out that all manner of experts and authorities on the subject would have tenants believe that eviction in a situation like this is more or less inevitable. The law in Ontario says that landlords can evict a tenant for extensive renovations and we know there is practically no recourse available to tenants who want to return to their home after renovations are completed but who are prevented from returning because the landlord installs a new tenant in the unit at a higher rent. Tenants are often told to expect nothing more than the three months’ rent landlords are required to pay them by law and that they should accept being pushed out of their home and move on.

The reality is that the simple act of reaching out to organized working-class people for support and taking collective action against landlords is powerful and gets results.

Landlord Retaliation at 12 Lansdowne

After issuing N13 eviction notices for extensive renovations to an entire building in Parkdale, landlords Evan Johnsen and Neil Spiegel have now sent new eviction notices to 2 tenants who hung banners from their balconies in protest.

The landlords claim that by hanging banners the tenants have committed an “illegal act” and they have threatened to file applications with the Landlord and Tenant Board to evict the tenants if the banners do not come down. Belying their previous statements in which they claimed to want to “build trust” with tenants and allow them to return to their homes after renovations have been completed, the new eviction notices are an attempt by the landlord to silence and punish tenants who have been organizing to stop the evictions at 12 Lansdowne.

This is not the first time that landlords have threatened to evict Parkdale organizers and it won’t be the last time that tenants defy such threats. In 2017, in the lead up to the Parkdale rent strike, tenants hung banners which read “May 1 Rent Strike”.  The landlord responded by sending lawyers’ letters wrongly accusing tenants of breaking the law. Next, the landlord sent employees to enter a tenant’s apartment to remove the banner from her balcony but when dozens of the tenant’s neighbours stood in the building lobby and blocked their entry the landlord backed off. Last year, Parkdale tenants who took part in a collective demand delivery at their building office received illegal act eviction notices which falsely accused them of forcibly confining employees of the landlord. When more than 200 Parkdale tenants and supporters rallied outside the building and marched through the streets of the neighbourhood to oppose the attack on tenant organizing, the landlord dropped the evictions.

The experience of working-class people in Parkdale is that landlords’ legal threats are best responded to by organizing. We cannot rely on politicians or legal strategies to protect us, but when we involve more and more of our neighbours in direct actions against those who exploit and harm us we build our power and defend our homes and neighbourhood. In the coming weeks, tenants at 12 Lansdowne will be calling on the support of neighbours in Parkdale and it is in all our interest to be there for them.

Use the link to contact Evan & Neil and demand they drop the evictions: www.linktr.ee/12Lansdowne

Evan Johnsen Evicts Parkdale Tenants

Today tenants of 12 Lansdowne attempted to deliver a letter to their landlord Evan Johnsen at his King Street West residence demanding that he drop the eviction notices he issued to them. Johnsen, who cannot be reached by tenants by phone or email, made himself scarce and would not accept the tenants’ letter himself. Tenants had no other option but to leave the letter with his ex-wife, Amy Stoddart, who claimed to no longer have any involvement with buildings owned by Johnsen.

In early January, tenants of the 23-unit building at 12 Lansdowne received N13 eviction notices for extensive renovations to their rental units. The ‘renoviction’ tactic has long been part of Johnsen’s playbook and his history of buying up rental properties and pushing tenants out their homes is well documented, including in the high profile case of 795 College Street. Johnsen has bought buildings and tried to evict Parkdale tenants before, but each time tenants have organized and put a stop to it.

Tenants of 12 Lansdowne expect a response from Johnsen to their letter within one week. If Johnsen fails to withdraw the eviction notices by then, they will have no other choice but to make their case much more public.

Laxton Tenants Fight for Homes

Late at night Friday May 14th, just over a week ago, the tenants of 9 Laxton – a rooming house in Parkdale – were forced out of their homes by a fire.

The Red Cross, contracted by the city to provide shelter, food, and provisions for tenants of rooming houses after emergencies, found them a hotel for the night. That same weekend, however, the city told the men they’d have to check out by Monday at noon, with no offer of further support. After many phone calls and emails, they agreed to move them to another hotel and to extend their stay, provided the tenants look for new homes. 

But the tenants already have homes. Some of them have lived there for over 20 years. The place isn’t perfect, but it’s theirs, and they intend to return to it, barring an order from the city saying it’s not safe (so far no such order has been provided). 

The tenants have been meeting regularly on the church grounds near their temporary shelter, planning. 9 Laxton has a bit of a rep, and a couple of the tenants even warned us that they weren’t sure organizing would work there. It’s been impressive to see the level of cooperation, commitment, and communication these guys have. They’ve stepped up for each other in ways I’m not sure any of them expected. 

Today they had a meeting with their landlord with the demand that they be given clear communication and documentation about when they can move back in — and if they can’t, evidence of why not. The landlord has agreed, and will draft them a letter for Monday stating that they should be able to move back in within two weeks. The city, however, is so far insisting that the guys have to leave the hotel by Thursday the 27th. The letters the city sent the tenants say an extension MAY be possible, but only if the tenants can prove that they are looking for new homes. Why?

Many of these men are living with disabilities, all are living on very low incomes. They pay between 500 and 800 dollars a month in rent — which for many of them leaves little for food and other necessities. One tenant went to view an apartment yesterday — the only listing he could find that was anywhere near his price range. It was way outside the neighbourhood, maybe 150sf, with a toilet, a sink, and a hotplate. The rent? $1000 plus utilities. He thought he might be able to swing it, if he cut way back on food… but even then, it would be a stretch. Why, in the midst of an ever deepening housing crisis, where it’s all but guaranteed they won’t be able to find anything else anywhere near so cheap, and with their homes only weeks away from being ready for re-habitation, would the city insist that they “move on”, as one worker put it? Not only would they be losing their homes, they’d be losing their neighbours and neighbourhood. We are tired of seeing our neighbours pushed onto the streets or out of our neighbourhood, out of our city. This is unacceptable.

Tuesday the tenants will be presenting the city with the documentation showing they can soon move back into their homes, and will be demanding that the temporary shelter be extended until such time. How will the city respond? Stay tuned for updates and, if necessary, actions.

Nestlé Workers on Strike

This week 470 workers walked off the job and stopped production at the Nestlé chocolate factory near Lansdowne and Dundas. 

Nestlé pays its temporary workers $6.57 less per hour than permanent employees, even though they do the same jobs, but it takes years of service to become permanent employees. 

A large number of Nestlé workers are Parkdale tenants. These striking workers are our neighbours in buildings on Jameson and West Lodge. Ngawang is one of them.

“I have been working at Nestlé since 2018. I am still a “P Zero’ earning $17.30 an hour. Every year my rent goes up, but my wages stay the same. This is not right,” he said. 

Workers say that P Zero temporary workers make up around 20 per cent of the factory’s entire workforce.

Workers were angered when, during union contract negotiations, Nestlé put new demands on the table at the last minute. Nestlé had been making as few as ten P Zero workers into permanent employees each year. The company then told the union that in the future they only want to make five P Zeroes permanent each year. In response, the union held a vote and 96 per cent of workers agreed to go on strike. 

Like tenants in Parkdale, workers at the Nestlé factory come from all over the world. Working-class people from every continent live side-by-side in apartment buildings and work shoulder-to-shoulder at Nestlé. 

Ngawang came to Toronto from Nepal in 2011. He supported his friends who work at the Ontario Food Terminal when they went on strike for better wages and conditions in 2016.

“I was there with other Parkdale tenants to support the Food Terminal workers when they went on strike. They are like us. We come to Canada because we have no rights at home.”

Workers like Ngawang have supported their neighbours when they needed support. Now it’s time for all of us to do the same for Nestlé workers.

“Nestlé is a multi-billion dollar company with good chocolate products. We just hope that they shorten the years to move us into Permanent. We don’t want to go strike but we deserve equal pay for equal work.”