Barriers put new wall up between east-end rent strikers and landlord
Strikers say intimidation; landlord says renovations
A struggle between east Hamilton rent strikers and their landlord over hikes has hit a wall — two of them.
Late Monday, a group of tenants at Stoney Creek Towers and supporters protested walls recently erected in the lobbies of two buildings where they have gathered to organize their pressure campaign.
The protesters argue property manager CLV threw up the barriers, which block access to roughly one half of the lobby spaces, in an attempt to frustrate their rent strike.
“You, as a landlord, cannot stop us from doing this,” strike captain Kevin O’Toole told district manager Selim Dedeja, as a throng filed into 77 Delawana Dr. to hold a meeting in defiance of the walls and newly announced rules against “loitering” in common areas.
“This is not safe,” Dedeja responded, accompanied by security guards while tenants had their pictures taken with a cardboard cut-out of CLV Group president Mike McGahan sporting an orange Donald Trump mane and the U.S. president’s signature red tie.
The tenants’ pitched battle against CLV and owner InterRent is focused on a nearly 10 per cent above-guideline increase (AGI) over two years in the four buildings that make up the complex east of Centennial Parkway South.
The strike comes amid spiking rents in Hamilton, most notably in the east end. In 2012, the average rent there was $724 compared to $1,009 in 2017, a city report noted in April. Tenants’ rights advocates have expressed concern residents are being displaced by increasingly unaffordable housing.
In an email Monday, CLV spokesperson Roseanne MacDonald-Holtman told The Spectator the lobby walls are part of renovations that will see residents “benefit from upgraded facilities and services.”
CLV issued the anti-loitering notices to “ensure” tenants’ “peace of mind and the quiet enjoyment of their residence,” MacDonald-Holtman said.
The landlord has also handed organizers with the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network no-trespassing
orders and issued an eviction notice to a tenant amid the lobby conflict.
During Monday’s rally, strikers said their rights to organize and participate in a tenants’ organization under the Residential Tenancies Act were being trampled. “The thing is, when they do something as insane as putting up a wall, it just makes me want to fight harder,” Linda Habibi said outside 77 Delawana Dr.
The struggle over common areas comes as a hearing to decide the AGI goes before the Landlord and Tenant Board on Nov. 1-2.
Ontario sets a cap on annual rental increases. This year, it’s 1.8 per cent. But a landlord can apply for an AGI to cover certain “extraordinary” expenses.
The strikers argue their Ottawa-based landlord is wrongly trying to make them pay the $1.6-million tab for common area renovations, including interior lighting, hallway paint and lobby upgrades.
MacDonald-Holtman said the provincial tribunal abides by a “strict set of rules” for AGIs. “Residents can disagree that the AGI meets the accepted investments.”
InterRent has said the Stoney Creek Towers were in dire need of work when it bought them in 2015 for $51 million and started renovating.
But longtime residents say issues in their apartments have gone unaddressed while the landlord fixes up vacant units and hikes rents on new arrivals. One-bedrooms in the buildings are advertised as $1,299 a month — a far cry from rents hovering around $750 that long-term residents pay.
Industry insiders cite AGIs as important
levers in the renewal of Ontario’s aging purpose-built rental buildings.
“It’s a very, very vital component of ensuring we are constantly reinvesting and retaining older rental stock,” said Danny Roth, a spokesperson for the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario.
Arun Pathak, president of the Hamilton and District Apartment Association, said the real issue are stagnating incomes. “We should be providing a significant income for people to have a reasonable life.”
But Pathak said “illegal” rent strikes aren’t the proper avenues to resolve such disputes.
“It’s very concerning that this thing’s happening.”
Campbell Young, an organizer with the tenants’ network, echoed that sentiment Monday night, but in urging the strikers not to lose heart.
“Trust me, this is putting pressure on them, this strike.”