It takes a community to make life better
West-end apartment residents found f their collective strength while fighting a hefty rent hike
In a cosy walk-up apartment, there are aabout a dozen people and one dog crowded into the living room, perched on a couch and an assortment of kitchen chairs that have been brought from neighbouring units.
The group, largely consisting of millennials, has gathered to share bottles of wine and an elaborate array of snacks laid out on the coffee table.
They’re also there to get down to business discussing their rights as tenants, recent issues in the building and how they can contribute to their St. Clair Avenue West community.
The 100 Vaughan Rd. Tenants Association formed somewhat out of necessi- tty. In dealing with an unexpected rent increase in the spring of 2018, some tenants in the 33-unit building realized they could have more power if they worked together.
Seeking help from the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations, they applied for legal funding through the city’s tenant defence fund, then hired a paralegal and successfully fought the increase at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
In August, they made it official, be
coming a tenants’ association for their building after realizing how “validating” it was to learn they weren’t alone on these types of issues, they said.
“These are social gatherings as much as they are anything else,” said Danielle Gallant, one of the organizers, who serves as meeting host and handles emailed newsletters to about 35 of an estimated 45 tenants in the building. “It’s not like a second job.”
They’re learning that speaking as a unified group can give them more power in places like city hall, where residents’ associations are typically groups of older homeowners with higher incomes — groups usually seen to have more voting power and therefore the ears of their local councillors.
Already, the 100 Vaughan Rd. team has had representatives from their local councillor and MPP at meetings and is learning to speak about complex city hall issues, like development applications, with authority.
The members have educated themselves on tenants’ rights and organization and have pushed for issues they care about, like affordable housing, green neighbourhoods and inclusive communities.
They’re also looking to make improvements to each others’ lives. At the most recent meeting in August, organizer Senaa Ahmad had the idea to start a lending library for books, tools and other household items.
The group’s members said they became more active when they found out the ownership of the building had been sold to Akelius Canada, a large corporation whose website shows 50 properties across the city. The handover, the tenants’ association said, was like an “adrenalin boost” to be more proactive about what was going on in the building and advocating for their rights as tenants, by keeping paper trails of issues and learning how to navigate communications with a corporate landlord.
For its part, the head of Akelius’s Toronto section says the company has a “positive” relationship with the tenant organization at Vaughan Road.
“We strive to provide a better living in terms of top-quality apartments, high levels of service, art and building improvements,” Björn Endruweit wrote in an email. “We look forward to working with the tenant organization in the future and encourage them to share their comments with us.” The Vaughan Road group members also said they’ve been surprised to learn that city officials wanted to hear from and valued the opinions of tenants.
They participated in a recent consultations on a planning framework for the St. ClairBathurst area, hosted by the city, and organizer Patrick Plestid sat on the stakeholder committee, later speaking in favour of the proposal at a Toronto and East York Community Council meeting on behalf of the association.
The group has also spoken in opposition to a planned development nearby, with a letter on official letterhead from the association voicing its concerns. The letter began by acknowledging the traditional territory of Indigenous peoples before writing knowledgeably about the height of the proposed building, lack of multi-bedroom units and lack of community infrastructure, such as child care.
Niko Troje, one of the group’s older members, said he was living at 100 Vaughan Rd. temporarily while working in Toronto, away from his hometown of Kingston. He said it was a challenge to get to know people in such a dense area, but the tenants’ group changed all that. He’s now a regular member, contributing to its discussions and ideas for creating a social network for the building.
At the end of the August meeting, a chocolate-frosted cake arrived on the coffee table as a way to wish a few residents who are moving away from the building well.
One of them was Benita Joy, who said her junior apartment felt too small for her and her partner, but she wasn’t allowed to take over the lease in a bigger apartment in the now Akeliusmanaged building. Instead, like other young people faced with increasing rents in Toronto, she chose to move out entirely to live in Newmarket.
“I don’t even know what I would have done without a group like this,” Joy said. When she found out others in the building had received the previous notice about the aboveguideline rent increase and were trying to do something about it, she said it “felt like a weight off” and wished she didn’t have to leave the community she’s found there.
“I’m so grateful for this group,” she said.