Toronto moves ahead with renoviction bylaw, more rental supply

Toronto city council has voted to add protections for renters and build them more housing options.

In separate votes at Wednesday's council meeting, councillors pushed forward a bylaw targeting illegal renovictions, and committed about $350 million toward building almost 6,000 new rental units across the city.

Arianne Robinson, press secretary for Mayor Olivia Chow, said in an email on Tuesday that the mayor's key items at Wednesday's meeting reflect her priorities to build more affordable housing and to protect renters.

"On her one-year anniversary in office, the mayor's rental housing supply program will bring about a co-operative and non-profit housing boom, including funding for 6,000 units to the market with construction starting this year," Robinson said.

"Her other key item moves the renovictions bylaw forward, to protect renters from unfair evictions, and offer renters more security and stability in their homes."

Bylaw targets illegal renovictions

Council first votedto direct staff to create a bylaw that will outline andregulatethe lawful procedure landlords must take to evict a tenant for a renovation, similar to a new Hamilton bylaw coming into effect next year. The city would enforce the bylaw.

Tenant advocates have said the regulatory change would prevent landlords from using renovations to evict tenants in bad faith, in order to raise the rent price of a unit.

"Renters in Toronto need to know that their homes are stable and secure," Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters before Wednesday's council meeting.

A staff report council considered before Wednesday's vote said there hasbeen "a growing trend of renovictions in Toronto, where a landlord illegitimately evicts a tenant by alleging that vacant possession of a rental unit is needed to undertake renovations or repairs."

In the lead-up to the vote, council reviewed staff analysis of Hamilton's Renovation Licence and Tenant Relocation By-law, which is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2025.

Under the Hamilton bylaw, a landlord will be required to apply for a renovation licence from the city within seven days of issuing an eviction notice to a tenant.

The bylaw will only allow the eviction and renovations to take place if the landlord has already secured all building permits to complete the work and provides an engineer's report confirming vacancy is necessary. The landlord will also need to make arrangements with any tenant who wants to return to their unit once the renovation is complete.

The bylaw Toronto city staff are now developingwill include similar regulations. Staff must bring a report back to council by the end of October.

Councillors debate: better protections or more red tape?

Coun. Stephen Holyday was the sole vote against Wednesday's motion.

He said the province is responsible for housing, and renoviction decisions ought to be enforced through the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). The city would only be adding red tape for landlords, which could increase their costs and be passed on to tenants, Holyday said.Enforcing the bylaw would also cost the city, he said.

"As much as we concern ourselves in council about the rising cost of living in this city, we're often the makers of that problem," he said.

But other councillors argued a lack of protections for renters is more costly to the city. Coun. Gord Perks said renovictions are adding to the city's growing encampments and shelter demands. Those problems require city resources, he said.

Coun. Perks said the city can't wait for the province to act. Perks said the province doesn't employ enough staff to properly enforce the RTA, and Ontario is failing to provide the basic human right of shelter.

"It is not red tape for the city of Toronto to step into that gap," he said.

City spending $350M on rental housing supply

Council also took a step toward building morerental housing in Toronto.

Council approved a new rental housing supply program to help the city reach its rent-controlled, affordable and rent-geared-to-income rental housing targets.

City staff recommended that the city allocate capital funding to 18 affordable rental and rent-geared-to-income housing projects, aimed at speeding the delivery of more than 2,600 new affordable rental homes, and a total of nearly 6,000 rental units.

Councillors voted overwhelmingly in favour of spending more than $350 million to speed up construction of the 18 projects. Staff say that could lead to thousands of affordable housing units currently in the development pipeline being built this year or next.

The program will also provide incentives to not-for-profit corporations, non-profit housing co-operatives, Indigenous housing providers, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation and the Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation to support the development of new rent-controlled homes.

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New plan to build 6,000 rental units fast goes to Toronto housing committee

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City staff recommendations include spending more than $350 million to speed up construction of 18 projects. Officials say that could lead to thousands of affordable housing units currently in the development pipeline being built this year or next.

Under the program, the city would establish a framework for recommending capital funding for rental homes, up to a maximum of $260,000 per unit.

Coun. Brad Bradford said that's triple what the city was planning to pay per unit last year under the Open Door program. Though he voted in favour of the program, he said council should consider whether the city will get enough housing for so much money.

Chow said it was important that more money be spent per door to subsidize supports and rent-geared-to-housing long term.

A report considered by council Wednesdaynotes that roughly 48 per cent of households in Toronto, or 557,970 households, are renters, with 40 per cent of renter households living in unaffordable housing, according to 2021 census data.

And it adds that the average rent for a two-bedroom condo apartment unit in Toronto is $3,139, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board in its Q1-2024 rental market report. This type of housing is the "main rental housing option" available to workers in the city but it comes with no rent control.

Chow also introduced amendments to the program Wednesday that called for help from other levels of government. Among other things, the amendments renew the city's request for expanded rent control, and create a new request to the province and federal government, asking them to finance about 6,000 new rental units in Toronto, similar to a program Ottawa created with British Columbia.

Also on the agenda Wednesday wasa request by the city's executive committee that council direct the Sankofa Square board of management to develop a multi-year business plan, and discuss the future of Villiers Island, an area under development in the Port Lands that will receive a permanent Indigenous name this fall. Council ran out of time Wednesday, and pushed the items to Thursday.