Of condos and landlords

Landlords ride out housing boom, National Post, 27 March 2006

The condo boom has created renewed competition for the apartment industry because many condo owners -- as much as 50% in downtown Toronto -- are renting out their property and competing with traditional landlords.

Activist-turned-developer pushes for better low-end housing

Building a caring approach: Former tenant advocate brings compassion to his projects, Toronto Star, 18 March 2006

While it may be ironic that Cohen today finds himself sitting at the helm of the Daniels Corp., one of Canada's largest development firms, the Saskatchewan native still tries to put his progressive mark on many of his projects.

"We build homes, and our success has given us both the opportunity and responsibility to do everything we can to assist the thousands upon thousands of people who can't put a meal on the table for their family, let alone buy a new home," he says.

Cohen has overseen the development of about 16,000 homes around the GTA. The firm was honoured by the Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association as its first Home Builder of the Year, and has also been a repeat winner of Tarion's prestigious Service Excellence Award...

But the projects that get Cohen really excited are the ones at the lower end of the affordability scale. Daniels is responsible for building 3,600 rental housing units, more than 700 rent-to-own units, and 716 affordable properties aimed at first-time buyers...

Just last week, Daniels launched its latest affordable housing project: Wave Lakeshore West. The 13-storey condo — comprising studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units — is being built near Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Kipling Ave. in Etobicoke.

Daniels got both the federal and provincial governments on board with the project, which is targeted to tenants who are having trouble cobbling together a down payment. With both Daniels and the two levels of government helping out with the down payment, the company says it's possible for a couple earning minimum wage to afford one of the units.

Additional press: National Post.

Have your say on the TPA at city hall

Public forum on tenant protection, City of Toronto: Shelter, Support and Housing Administration

In their 2003 election platform, the Ontario Liberals pledged to "repeal the misnamed Tenant Protection Act and replace it with an effective tenant protection law in our first year of government."

It's now 2006, and the law has not yet been changed.

The City of Toronto wants you to join us in sending a message to our provincial representatives.

• The current Tenant Protection Act must be changed.
  
• Ontarians have a right to live in good affordable housing.
  
• Save the existing supply of affordable housing.

Have your say at this public forum – everyone's invited!

Tenant tax rate 174% higher than homeowners'

Apartment renters looking for help with tax fairness campaign, Dundas Star News, 03 Mar 2006

A group of apartment tenants is tired of paying unfairly inflated tax rates, and is looking for support from apartment renters across Hamilton to help close the gap between residential and multi-residential taxpayers...

Their municipal tax rate is currently 2.74 times that of residential taxpayers [in Hamilton]. Eighteen per cent of their monthly rent goes directly to municipal taxes.

Municipal staffers reply that while tenants pay a higher rate relative to property value, the vastly higher average value of homes means homeowners pay more in absolute terms.

A better measure of fairness is ability to pay, or the ratio of property tax assesment to income (which is more difficult to determine, and so infrequently enters the debate).

The real problem is that many tenants are unaware that they pay property tax through rent, and municipal political discourse is often suffused with the notion that only homeowners deserve to have a say in a city's affairs.

Tenant blog + alleged libel = eviction?

Blog comments net Kingston woman an eviction notice, CBC News, 02 Mar 2006

Two weeks ago, Sarah Dawe received a notice from Homestead Land Holdings Ltd., the company that owns the apartment building, accusing her of libel and asking her to vacate the building because of her online comments...

She first launched a website, and later a personal blog, after becoming frustrated with the company's response to her complaints. The website has since been removed by the service provider. Dawe claims it was because of intervention by the landlord.

Dawe has continued to chronicle her fight with Homestead on her blog, which is still up and running.

Having read her blog and some of the news coverage surrounding this story, it seems the crux of the matter is that the landlord is proceeding with an eviction on the basis of the claim that her on-line comments constitute harassment of their staff.

Given the extensive use of exclamation marks and over-the-top rhetoric on her blog (which also includes potentially libellous accusations about vets who have cared for her pet cats), I have some sympathy for such an interpretation; however, in between the all-caps outbursts and the fanciful suggestion of a conspiracy between the landlord (founded by a "KINGSTON LAWYER" and run by his "KINGSTON LAWYER" son), her MP (Peter Milliken), her MPP (John Gerretsen, coincidentally also Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing), and other "KINGSTON LAWYERS", the blog does also document a decade-long history of maintainence and health concerns over which the tenant has (unsucessfully) taken the landlord to the ORHT.

While the media is covering this as an interesting case raising questions about libel and the internet, a more pertinent question is whether a tenant's decision to publish a record of her landlord issues - including the text of findings in the landlord's favour at the Tribunal - is sufficient grounds for eviction. They're not suing her for libel, after all, but rather attempting to use the alleged libel as a reason to evict her for harassment.

Update: She won!

Additional press: Kingston Whig Standard, London Free Press.

Scam could leave victims homeless

Toronto Apartment Fraudulently Rented to Several Tenants, AM640 Toronto, 01 Mar 2006

It's going to be a brutal day at 26 Uxbridge, in the Davenport and Caledonia area.

Police are expecting a number of people to show up there to take over an apartment which has apparently been rented to all of them. They say it looks like a scheme to grab rent and security deposits from several potential tenants, and the suspect in the case is believed to be long gone with the money...

ACTO: ORHT unable to provide fair, impartial hearings

Tenant group alleges bias, Toronto Star, 01 Mar 2006

Cara Reid was late paying July rent for the apartment she shares with her two young children. On Aug. 4, Reid's landlord applied to evict the single mother.

Reid didn't challenge the application within the required five days and was sent an eviction order Aug. 10. Then one month later, Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal adjudicator Paul DeBuono overturned the order.

DeBuono said the five-day requirement in the Tenant Protection Act "results in constructive discrimination." It discriminates against single parents, seniors, the disabled and recent immigrants, he wrote.

Units per capita steady since mid-1970s

The following figures illustrate how the quantity of rental housing units and the population of Ontario have evolved, relative to one another, since 1950.

In a nutshell, the number of rental housing units per Ontarian rose by some 50% between the 1950s and 1970s - a result of the 1960s building boom discussed in an earlier post - but has barely budged since:




For redundancy's sake, here are the same statistics represented the other way 'round (pesons per unit, rather than units per person):




Source: CANSIM II Series V12 (using Q4 data for each year), V227532.