QUEEN’S PARK — Today, MPP Aislinn Clancy and MPP Mike Schreiner were joined by tenants from the Kitchener riding to call on the government to pass Clancy’s private members’ bill, the Keeping People Housed Act.
Kitchener tenants Karolina Kruk and Leonard Shushan, both of whom have been fighting bad-faith evictions from their apartments, described the extreme lengths their landlords have gone to in an attempt to remove them from their homes.
“I have had my heat turned off in the winter. I have been locked out of my apartment for hours. I have had the locks to my lobby changed because they want me out,” said Kruk.
“I’m a senior on a fixed income,” said Shushan, who has been fighting a bad-faith renoviction since 2019. “I don’t want to spend my golden years in a tent.”
“Some of the simplest ways that we can protect Ontario’s renters and preserve our affordable housing stock are staring us in the face,” said Clancy. “The only barrier to implementing them is the Premier himself.”
Key measures included in the Keeping People Housed Act include:
- Expansion of rent control on all buildings, including those built after 2018;
- Reinstatement of vacancy control to limit rent increases between tenancies;
- Increased requirements for landlords to ensure that vacancy is required for renovations before filing an application for an N13;
- Measures to ensure that any buildings with six or more units with below mid-range rents, if demolished, are replaced with at least the same number, size and type of units with rent similar to those that were demolished; and
- The creation of a Rental Task Force to address the misuse of above-guideline rent increases.