Housing advocates call for significant renoviction by-law

It's a completely deplorable practice. That's how affordable housing advocates describe the practice of rent evictions. They say many renters across Toronto are being forced out of their long time homes and are calling for the city to take actions. We're going to bring in our Dilshad Berman right now who is at City Hall where city officials are gathering to discuss implementing a bylaw to deal with the issue. Dilshad, what are we expecting today? Hi Faiza. So the report that city staff were looking into the renovations bylaw came out last week. Now in that report they did analyse a bylaw that Hamilton has already passed and they were trying to see if that could be implemented in Toronto. Now city staff say that more consultations are needed and then a report on those consultations will come out later this year. Now, the fact is that the city's Housing and planning committee is deciding on how to proceed today. And we've got advocates here from various from various institutions and organizations across the city that advocate for tenants who are asking the city staff to just get it done. And so today I have with me Carly Wilson from Don Valley Legal Community Services. And Carly, you're one of the advocates that's going to be speaking today to the committee. Tell me what we're going to hear from you. That's right. So what what I'm going to be speaking to today and what I think most tenant advocates are going to be speaking to today is the need to speed this up. I feel like the, the report that we received from the City of Toronto is asking for a summer and a little bit of a falls worth of consultations on what kind of bylaw we could have here in Toronto that could look like the Hamilton bylaw. Instead of taking the Hamilton bylaw and applying it to Toronto and focusing those consultations on implementation, right? So basically you're saying we have the framework, there's no need to do it again, let's just get it done? Exactly. We don't want to see city staff wasting time reinventing the wheel when Hamilton has had this. They have this creative and this brilliant framework that that has a ton of potential to really impact the lives of tenants. Why reinvent the wheel here? Why start from scratch when that already exists? Can you tell me a little bit about what the Hamilton bylaw is implementing that's going to be helpful to tenants? Absolutely. So the need for a bylaw generally is that I currently, when tenants are rent evicted, so when they are removed from their homes due to renovations, there is no check or balance on whether or not those renovations are actually done, whether or not those tenants get to exercise their right to return to the unit and where those tenants go in the interim. What the Hamilton bylaw does is it creates a licensing system that ensures that tenants are actually rent evicted for a real reason, that the renovations are completed, that they have a place to go in the interim and that they are given that right to return. Right now, that pressure is all on tenants to enforce their own rights. The bylaw will put the hands in this, put that power into the hands of the city to ensure that those rights are enforced. Right. So there's actually somebody with oversight on on the process itself. It's not all up to the tenants. It's not for them to prove somebody has oversight over it and essentially is protecting tenants. Yeah. Instead of leaving tenants who were, let's be honest, like they were just displaced from their homes. They were removed. They're out of their communities. It's no longer up to them to ensure that their rights are enforced. Someone else is looking out for them. Right. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Carly. Thanks for your time. Thank you. So, Faiza, you heard from Carly Wilson. Right now she's saying essentially that we need to get this done. We need to get this moving. There's no need for more consultations. We've already got a great framework down in Hamilton. Let's get it done in Toronto. Back to you, Faiza. We'll be watching this one closely. Dilshad Bourbon at City Hall. Thank you.