A Voice for Tenants at City Hall
York South-Weston has one of the highest concentrations of renters in Toronto, but tenants are struggling to keep a roof over our heads.
Corporate landlords are squeezing us for all they can, using legal loopholes like Above Guideline Increases (AGIs) and renovictions to price out long-term residents. While we struggle to pay the bills, slumlords get away with ignoring their one job: repairing and maintaining the buildings we live in.
Our rent should guarantee a safe, healthy and comfortable living space. Housing should be truly affordable for everyday, working-class people.
Half the city are renters, but not one of our city councillors is a tenant. It’s time for one of us to fight for us. I’ll bring my track-record of championing tenant rights and protections directly to City Hall.
As City Councillor I’ll work to:
- Introduce an anti-AGI bylaw to prevent landlords from skirting around rent control
- Introduce a bylaw for real rent control on all housing built on public land
- Enforce penalties for landlords who don’t keep up with basic repairs and maintenance
- Hire a dedicated tenant organizer in my constituency office to address urgent needs
- Push to pass a Maximum Temperature bylaw so people aren’t forced to overheat in their own homes
- Hire more RentSafe inspectors to make sure building repair and maintenance issues are addressed in a timely manner
- Direct RentSafeTO to conduct in-unit inspections as part of the regular biennial building evaluations
- Provide a universal work order form that any tenant in the City can print and submit to their landlord
- Expand the Air Conditioner Assistance Program to all low-income tenants in Toronto, and merge it with the Hardship Fund and the ODSP/OW AC benefit
Unlocking Untapped Housing Stock
In the middle of a housing crisis, we have homes sitting empty while investors and speculators wait for the most profitable time to sell. Building new units takes time and money. But if the City bought existing units in bulk, it would cost one third the price of building new ones – and increase our supply of affordable housing now, not ten years down the road.
We shouldn’t let private equity take advantage of us. The City should get in the game and turn existing and newly vacant units into the truly affordable housing we so desperately need.
As City Councillor I’ll work to:
- Have the City buy existing housing units and convert them into rent geared to income units (RGI) when natural tenant turnover occurs
- Get the provincial and federal governments to pay their fair share into Toronto's underfunded social housing system
- Expand the City’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition (MURA) Program to protect affordable housing
- Bring new housing acquisition in house with TCHC, so we can finally make a dent in the social housing waitlist and keep property management public