Dufferin Tenants Resolve to Fight Rent Increase

Last night our neighbours at 295 Dufferin held a meeting in their building lobby. The meeting was called for tenants to decide on next steps in their struggle against a rent increase above the guideline sought by their landlord, Starlight Investments.

Starlight applied to raise rent at the building by nearly 6% above the guideline in 2019 and 2020. Taken with the regular guideline increases, tenants faced a total rent increase of almost 10% over two years. The increase comes after years of disruptive construction at the building and Starlight’s bid to buy tenants out of their homes.

“Last week we packed the Landlord and Tenant Board and stood firm, together as a building,” said Katrina, an organizer at the building addressing the meeting, “Starlight has already backed down on $1.1 million of what they are claiming in their case. We need to keep pushing.”

Members of Parkdale Organize joined the meeting to speak about their successful struggles against above guideline increases at their buildings. “The same thing happened when we went on rent strike,” explained an organizer from the 1251 King building committee, “Hoping we would end our strike, our landlord lowered the rent increase. But we decided our strike was bigger than one rent increase in one building. We were fighting for all Parkdale tenants. So we kept the strike going until the landlord withdrew the above guideline increase altogether. For us, any rent increases above the guideline was unacceptable.”

The decision taken at last night’s meeting was to continue to press for Starlight to withdraw its application to raise rent above the guideline. A plan of action was approved and tenants immediately set to work. In the coming weeks our neighbours will be calling on Parkdale for support.

“It’s been like living in hell,” said 13-year tenant Pat, “The rent increase adds insult to injury. We can’t afford the increase. We have to draw the line.”

Under Threat of Eviction? Talk to your Neighbours!

Dave (@dsherwoodb), a member of Parkdale Organize, writes about his experience facing the threat of eviction in Parkdale.

Eviction isn’t just ‘moving’, and it’s rarely an acute event. It’s months or years of stress and anxiety, of disempowerment, of not feeling secure in the most basic ways. And for those of us in recovery — as so many of us are in Parkdale — it is traumatic.

Whether recovering from mental health issues, addictions, violence, colonialism, or from any number of forms of oppression, Parkdale is a neighbourhood of survivors — and an eviction or threat thereof can derail a recovery with devastating efficiency.

When my building was bought a year and a half ago by a notorious ‘renovicter’, and knowing an eviction would likely mean leaving this city — along with my family and support network — I was terrified. I felt utterly powerless.

I remember when the landlord toured my unit — my home — when he was first thinking of buying the place. He commented on how cheap the rent was. How grovelingly I agreed and said how grateful I was for that, knowing even as I said it that my gratitude meant nothing to him.

All the hard work I’d done to rebuild my life seemed like it could go up in smoke at any moment — and not because I’d done anything wrong, but because we live in a society where rich people get to exploit poor people.

At first I flailed wildly, reading landlord-tenant law, contacting politicians and social-justice-minded lawyers & journalists… I even got my first cell-phone & signed up for twitter (ha!)…

My hope was that someone more knowledgeable, more powerful, would come save me — because that’s what we’re trained as poor or ill or marginalized people to want, because everything in our media and culture tells us that’s the only way.

But no one swooped in. Politicians were sympathetic, but jurisdictionally challenged. Journalists were interested… if things got to crisis point. Lawyers were helpful, but couldn’t do much until notice was served — and I’d seen what landlords could get away with at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Friendly as they all were, no one could do anything to help with the stress of knowing that someone far more powerful than me, with money and connections galore, had a target painted on mine and my neighbours’ backs.

Until I saw a flyer, and went to a meeting, and met a group of people — my neighbours — who weren’t looking to anyone else to save them, but to each other.

Absent political favour, funding, influence, or compromise they were building power through sheer force of will and solidarity. As I came to learn, they had already achieved some amazing things.

Over the past year I’ve knocked on more doors than I can count and visited more landlords than I can recall. I’ve done my best to have my neighbours’ backs.

So when I got notice tonight that construction is starting in my building this week, there was an initial pang of panic, but none of the powerless despair I felt in those first months after my home was sold.

Because if this *is* an attempt to push us out, I know we can *do* something about it, and I know we’ve got a neighbourhood behind us. And not just any neighbourhood, but Parkdale. And Parkdale fights back. And that’s a damn powerful feeling.

So here’s my PSA, for anyone who needs it:

If you’re facing eviction or are worried you might be soon; if they’re raising your rent or not doing repairs; if they’re trying to intimidate you or just make living in your building so miserable you move: Talk. To. Your. Neighbours.

It’s not just about your home being saved, it’s about *you* saving your homes, together, and reclaiming the power, dignity, and autonomy this fucked up system takes from you.

If you’re in Parkdale & need help getting started, contact Parkdale Organize. We’re not here to save anyone, but we’re your neighbours, and we’ve all been through it, and we’ve got your back, 100%.

Laxton Tenants Put Landlord on Notice

Today our neighbours at 2 Laxton visited their landlord, Gojko Kuzmanovic at his residence off Royal York Road. Tenants put him on notice to do long neglected repairs in their units and common areas in the building.

“When I moved in the unit was filthy and I had to stay with a friend while I cleaned it up,” said Tsering, a member of the building committee. “My stove is broken and I have had to spend money to eat out for the past month.”

This morning tenants delivered 20 work order forms detailing disrepair in their units to the landlord. They also delivered a letter demanding repairs to common areas, such as replacement of soiled and torn hallway and stairwell carpeting. Tenants say the City of Toronto and Landlord and Tenant Board have failed to address conditions at the building which threaten their health and safety.

“A couple of tenants tried complaining to the City and the Board but it didn’t work,” said Steven, an organizer and tenant of fourteen years. “We have to organize the building and pressure the landlord directly. This isn’t about me or any one tenant, it’s about all of us, the whole building.”  

When tenants confronted Kuzmanovic at his door he committed to starting work this week and replacing the hallway carpets by the end of September. Tenants say they plan to hold him to his word.

Report: Spencer Tenants Sit-in

Today our neighbours from 116 Spencer blocked their landlord from stealing their patio furniture and barbeque.

“We sat here having coffee and donuts while he tried to throw out our stuff. He says he has the authority, but he’s not in the right, and he can’t make us leave,” said Sadie, a tenant at the building.

In 2017 investor Shafik Kassam bought the building. Since then he has repeatedly tried to evict tenants. Tenants at the building pay $600-900. Meanwhile, the landlord has advertised a vacant, one-bedroom unit for $2095

“The landlord is doing this to get rid of us. He wants to raise up the rents on the units,” said Jim, a tenant who has been dragged in front of the Landlord and Tenant Board by Kassam.

In July, tenants got notice the landlord would be removing “all furniture and objects” from the front porch on August 23. Tenants use the porch to socialize and hold tenant committee meetings.

This morning the property manager arrived at the building with private security and a hired truck. When tenants refused to move from the porch, the property manager called police. Responding to the call, a Toronto Police Services officer admitted he had no authority to remove tenants from the porch. He suggested the landlord remove the tenants’ belongings in the middle of the night.

Tenants say they will continue to defend their homes and use of the porch. They also have a message for their neighbours in Parkdale. “Talk to your neighbours because you’re stronger together. Don’t be intimidated by your landlord or other people who claim to have authority over you,” said Sadie. “Be prepared. Stand your ground. Not every confrontation is a bad confrontation,” added Jim.

Legal Aid Board Chair Serves Landlord Class

@dsherwoodb reports on LAO Board Chair’s real estate connections…

Last week Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) made front page news when it announced a major attack on Parkdale, cutting 45% of its funding to Parkdale Community Legal Services (PCLS). What wasn’t reported was LAO’s Board Chair Charles Harnick’s connections to Toronto real estate interests. We think they go a long way to explaining the decision to target PCLS. 

For landlords, developers, and their investors, Parkdale represents a giant pot of potential money. They can buy property here relatively cheap, jack up rents, and massively increase their return on investment. Standing in their way are the tens of thousands of working-class people who rent in Parkdale.  

Landlords want us out of Parkdale. They know that they are best served when they can take us on one at a time. In courts and tribunals already set up in their interests, landlords almost always come out on top. Parkdale tenants have learned that we are strongest when we are organized and exercise our strength in numbers. 

PCLS supports tenants who want to organize and fight back and provides legal defense against eviction. So, it is in landlords’ interests to have PCLS shut down or severely cutback. Our interest as tenants is in a well-funded PCLS.

Having established whose interests are served by legal aid cuts, we come to Charles Harnick. Harnick was a Cabinet Minister in the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government of the 90’s, and in April 2019, the Ford government appointed him Board Chair for Legal Aid Ontario. In the interim, he’s been busy establishing himself as a high powered lobbyist under Philip Dewan, former president of the Ontario landlord’s association, the Federation of Rental Housing Providers (FRPO). One of Harnick’s recent clients, for example, was AirBnB — beloved by property owners for making it possible to be a landlord with tenants who have no rights. One of his current clients — Westdale Construction Co — is a major Toronto landlord. Through its subsidiary Westdale Properties, it owns 14 large residential buildings in Toronto alone, and nearly 7,000 apartments in total. 

The interests Charles Harnick is being paid to represent are vested in the gutting of our neighbourhood. Parkdale tenants, when faced with eviction or exploitation, impoverishment or deportation, rely on PCLS. Harnick’s attack on PCLS is an attack on us and makes clear which side he’s on.

Report: Parkdale Fights Back

This morning at 8:00am, in the midst of our daily grind, over 300 Parkdale parents, students, teachers and workers met on Jameson. We came together to demonstrate our strength in the face of attacks on our neighbourhood. We made a commitment to stand together in the struggles ahead. We committed to defending our homes, our schools, our jobs, and our services. We came together with one message: to defend ourselves, we must be organized.

Today was the first step in building the organization we need in Parkdale. In each and every struggle – whether in our buildings, our schools and workplaces, at the Ontario Food Terminal, and throughout Parkdale – the independent organization of working-class people is our greatest strength. We must involve every one of our neighbours and co-workers. In doing so WE become the decision makers in these struggles.

Now is the time to prepare ourselves because bosses, landlords, and politicians are preparing too. Those of us who stood on Jameson today must go back to our buildings and workplaces and share the news. We are Parkdale and Parkdale depends on us.

June 5 – Stand With Parkdale, Fight For Parkdale

At 8 AM on June 5 Parkdale tenants, students, teachers and workers will stand together on Jameson Avenue to demonstrate our power and unity against threats to our jobs, schools, services and homes.

The Parkdale Community Legal Clinic is facing closure. Our schools are facing cutbacks. Refugees no longer have access to legal support. The Ontario Food Terminal is at risk of closure. We now face faster and easier evictions.

We fight for schools where students have the support they need and deserve.

We fight for an end to evictions.

We fight for access to quality services for all.

We fight for better jobs and working conditions.

We fight for Parkdale.

THIS IS PARKDALE Volume 2, Issue 4 – May 2019

THIS IS PARKDALE

Volume 2, Issue 4 – May 2019

ONE DAMN THING AFTER ANOTHER

It can sometimes feel like we’re surrounded. It feels like we’re under attack. In a lot of ways we are. Every week (even every day) brings a new threat to our homes, our schools, our jobs or the services we rely on. There’s no easy way to put it: Parkdale is in danger. It’s important we understand the level of danger we’re in but also the ways we can fight back and defeat these threats – TOGETHER.

Immigration

The Provincial government has cut all funding to legal assistance for refugees trying to build a life with some safety here in Ontario. Hundreds of our neighbours are now in even more danger of deportation than they already were. Deportation to places where they and their families face discrimination, violence and persecution. Our neighbours come from all over the world and now call this neighbourhood home. Something they have every right to do. They build lives here, they build up and contribute to the life of Parkdale. The provincial government is trying to destroy that with this racist cut.

Education

Teachers in Parkdale struggle to educate, support and help raise the youth in our neighbourhood. One of the biggest struggles schools in this neighbourhood have faced is not having the resources to do these very important jobs. Now the provincial government plans to make what was a difficult job one that is impossible to do well. They plan to gut almost every program and support students and families in this neighbourhood rely on schools for. On top of that they want to cram 40 students in to classrooms that were already too full.

Legal Aid

For decades people in this neighbourhood have turned to Parkdale Legal Services for assistance in dealing with landlords, bosses, immigration and social assistance. Without the workers at Parkdale Legal over those years, literally tens of thousands of people would have been railroaded through the courts with no chance whatsoever. If Legal Aid Ontario has its way, that’s exactly what is going to happen. PCLS is in real danger of being shut down. If that happens thousands of us in Parkdale will be left with no legal support in courts that are built to side against us.

Food Security and Job Security

Every year over 1 million trucks arrive at the Ontario Food Terminal at The Queensway and Parklawn filled with fruits and vegetables. Every day and night workers unload those trucks and make sure we have food to eat. Many of those workers live in Parkdale, and MOST of the fruits and vegetables people in Toronto eat come through the Food Terminal.

In the last few years workers at the Food Terminal have organized and gone on strike for better wages and working conditions. Now the Provincial Government is making plans to shut down the Food Terminal, destroying the progress workers have made and leaving the flow of produce east of Manitoba under the control of only the biggest grocery store companies. If this happens, our neighbours will lose the jobs they’ve fought so hard to make better and we’ll be forced to pay whatever price Loblaws and Metro want us to for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Housing

The majority of the units people in Parkdale rent are owned by three very wealthy and powerful companies. Metcap, Akelius, and Timbercreek have been gouging people in Parkdale Parkdale teachers and students demand and deserve on rent, failing or refusing to do repairs and better. pushing people out of the neighbourhood with rent increases and evictions. There are plans to make all of this much easier to do. There are plans to make evictions and rent increases even easier for landlords. The government and landlords want none of our homes to be safe and they are working hard to make that a reality.

Working class people in this neighbourhood, city and province have never had it easy. Everything we get we have to fight for. In the next few months people in this neighbourhood will be organizing and fighting against attacks that threaten all of us. If that fight is going to be successful we must support each other and get organized – TOGETHER.

WE ARE PARKDALE: ALL HANDS ON DECK

Every working class person in Parkdale – and Ontario – is under attack. We have a handful of powerful enemies that are threatening us. But we have literally millions of potential allies, too. We have a responsibility to ourselves and each other to fight and defeat these enemies. It’s not enough to wait and hope for an election. It’s not enough to sign petitions and send emails. Protests at parliament on a Saturday afternoon won’t stop this.

In the coming weeks and months workers will go out on strike, people will occupy offices and courts, picket lines will go up and organizing will happen. We need to be a part of that. We need to make it clear that when push comes to shove, working class people will shove back.

In order for us to do this we need to be serious. We need to take these threats and our response seriously. We need to prepare for, plan and participate in a real fight against those that threaten all of us. This means real things we can do right now. Conversations with our family, friends, neighbours and coworkers need to turn in to meetings and plans at our buildings and workplaces. Those plans need to turn in to actions. Those actions need to turn in to a fight that people can join.

It won’t be easy to win this fight. But it won’t be half as hard as life will be if we lose. This fight isn’t going to be won or lost in Parkdale. But we can use the lessons we’ve learned and the strength we’ve built in this neighbourhood to fight in a way that can be an example for other working class people. An example of how we can actually win – together.

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.

West Lodge vs. Timbercreek

The struggle against displacement in Parkdale continues…

Today our neighbours at 103 and 105 West Lodge occupied the head offices of Timbercreek Asset Management. Joined by Parkdale teachers whose students live at the buildings, tenants delivered more than 150 work orders detailing disrepair in units. Today West Lodge tenants put Timbercreek on notice: we will not be pushed out of our homes in Parkdale.

In October 2018 Timbercreek took over the West Lodge Towers and immediately launched a concerted drive to displace tenants from the buildings. This is consistent with Timbercreek’s business strategy: buy older, neglected buildings and remove the working-class residents before renovating and raising rents. Timbercreek describes this process as putting buildings through a “car wash”. Timbercreek sees working-class people as dirt they need to wash away. 

Already in 2019 Timbercreek has dragged dozens of West Lodge tenants to the Tribunal to evict them. Hundreds more have received eviction notices. Timbercreek alleges tenants have not paid rent when in fact their own accounting is wrong. Timbercreek has intentionally obstructed direct payment of rent from government agencies for tenants who receive social assistance. They then claim the tenant is in arrears and take them to Tribunal to evict them. 

In the midst of a critical city-wide housing shortage, Timbercreek refuses to rent our vacant units in the West Lodge buildings. They plan to hoard vacant rental units until they’ve pushed out enough working-class tenants for the buildings to be marketable to higher income people. Only after our neighbours have been pushed out does Timbercreek intend to improve conditions. 

Since Timbercreek took over the buildings West Lodge tenants have been plagued with frequent floods, fires, and electrical outages. Running water is often only available as either scalding hot or completely unheated. The buildings often go long periods without any working elevators. Timbercreek promises repairs and improvements but timelines are not met and disruptions to tenants’ lives persist. Timbercreek is manufacturing a crisis at West Lodge designed to push tenants out. 

The following excerpt is from the demand letter West Lodge tenants delivered to Timbercreek today along with the repair orders: 

We see Herongate. We see 200 Dufferin. We are prepared to organize our neighbourhood against you and your business interests. Our neighbourhood has developed methods of dealing with matters such as these. Methods that tend to be both very public and effective.  We hope it doesn’t come to that, here. But we are not willing to see more of our neighbours pushed out on to the streets. 

Our demands include:
– A timeline for completion of all collected repair forms in writing within 2 weeks;
– Unit repairs should be completed before cosmetic repairs to common areas;
– No more evictions;
– No Above Guideline rent increases;
– Vacant units, currently being held empty, should be rented out.