Toronto tightens standards for apartment buildings
Landlords will be required to meet a minimum of health and safety standards during the COVID-19 pandemic after council voted Tuesday to temporarily amend a bylaw applying to multiresidential apartment buildings.
Tenants in populated highrises and advocates were concerned enough wasn’t being done to keep their homes safe. That led Coun. Josh Matlow to move a motion at council on Tuesday asking for the bylaw changes that include requiring landlords to provide hand sanitizer or handwashing stations at building entrances and other common spaces.
Though Toronto Public Health released health and safety guidelines for landlords during the pandemic, the Federation of Metro Toronto Tenants’ Associations — which represents over 3,000 members — recorded in a recent survey of 577 tenants that 50 per cent of landlords had not adopted any new cleaning practices during the pandemic.
“It has become clear that landlords are not voluntarily complying with the guidelines established by the City to protect tenants,” Matlow’s motion said. “This is particularly concerning in light of recent data released by Toronto Public Health showing that the majority of new ‘sporadic’ or community cases are occurring in low-income neighbourhoods with a significant percentage of racialized people that must work outside of the home in congregate settings.”
City staff suggested Tuesday it may be difficult to enforce the new rules across the city. But Coun. Joe Cressy, who chairs the city’s board of health, said he hopes the move to enshrine those public health guidelines in the bylaw will help encourage compliance from landlords without need for citywide enforcement.
In Thorncliffe Park, where Toronto Public Health documented 644 positive COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, tenant Aashir Vahidy said while his and other buildings in the area initially had hand sanitizer available at entrances it has since run out and not been refilled. “It looks very good, but other than that, no more soap,” he said.
He said making sure he washes his hands and socially distances in his building in line with public health advice is up to him, but shared spaces should also be better managed by landlords.
“It is my responsibility as well, but when we are entering into the building there is a lot of people that have touched the doors,” said Vahidy, who lives in a smaller building but has visited nearby highrises where he said he has rarely found the city-recommended measures in place.
Matlow also successfully moved a motion asking the provincial government to provide rent supports for tenants as they continue to face financial hardship and to better protect them against future evictions as the province moves to speed up that process through new legislation.