Hamilton is a city experiencing an ongoing, monumental increase in unhoused folk. Currently 1,890 folks are unhoused with fully 280 living outside.
There are only 13,124 subsidized housing units in this city that over 570,000 people call home. The wait list for subsidized housing has 6,110 households on it. Then, there is the other list of about 2,000 names waiting for approval to get added to the existing wait list.
In 2022, only 653 households got housed in rent-geared-to-income units. A discouraging number for sure, but it’s down right terrifying when you realize that is the most households since 2017.
The Ford government removed rent caps on properties built or renovated after November 15, 2018. That means landlords can increase their tenants’ rent as much as the market will bear. Meanwhile, properties covered under the Residential Tenancy Act, 2006 are limited to a 2.5 per cent increase in 2024. And, therein lies the problem.
Landlords will go to extreme lengths to get long time tenants, still covered under rent control, to move out so they can exponentially increase the rent. This is predatory eviction and when achieved under the guise of doing renovations, is called renoviction.
Currently, a 600 square-foot one-bedroom new build condo rents for between $1,900 and $3,600 plus utilities in Hamilton. Lower priced units could be located in less desirable neighbourhoods, but could just as easily reflect a real estate agent ‘under pricing’ the unit to start a bidding war among applicants.
Some one-bedroom units have a half-wall dividing the kitchen from a very small single bed ‘bedroom.’ Others have a frosted glass room divider that you pull closed to turn the space into your bedroom.
And, since rent control doesn’t apply to these units, the folks renting them are what I call precarious renters because they have no idea if they’ll be able to afford their unit a year from now when the landlord increases the rent -- often in the double digits. They also know that anything currently on the market will also be priced higher and even more unaffordable than it is today.
This Ford-fuelled rental crisis has seen people on fixed incomes taking up residence on the street and in local parks. That includes elders living on Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) along with folks living on Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments.
And, don’t think that hard working people are immune from becoming unhoused. Christopher McKitterick has a full-time job and lived in the same $800 one-bedroom apartment for over eight years paying his rent and bills on time.
When a new property management company purchased the building in 2018, they set about trying to get McKitterick to move out. Eventually, McKitterick filed a complaint with the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) over the lack of heat, hot water and damage to walls caused by contractors addressing issues affecting the apartment below.
McKitterick had no way of knowing that the LTB hearing would happen while he was hospitalized with a serious foot infection. Without hearing his side of the story, the board found in favour of the landlord and McKitterick was homeless.
Dr. Kerry Beal, Lead Physician of the Shelter Health Network, was instrumental in helping McKitterick transition from an encampment to a one-bedroom apartment costing $1,450 per month.
Beal sat down with me to discuss Hamilton’s dire rental situation that is only getting worse as rents continue skyrocketing and landlords continue profiteering off of a basic human right.
We also discussed McKayla Murchison who found herself homeless after the owners of the apartment she rented sold the house. The mother of three young children spent eight months in the shelter system eventually living in a hotel room used as overflow shelter space.
Murchison applied for over 200 units before securing a large two-bedroom apartment in a house for $1,800.
Small Change readers may not be aware of the growing number of folks living in recreational vehicles (RVs) parked on municipal lands. These folks have been told by the city that they have to move elsewhere. The problem with that request is two-fold, many of the RVs are not drivable and even if they are, there is no available free land to move them to.
Something Beal and I did not have time to discuss are the new policies Hamilton City Council unanimously passed on January 18, 2023. When fully implemented in 2025 these bylaws will protect tenants and save any remaining affordable rental housing stock.
Fed up waiting for the province to address the rental catastrophe it created, Hamilton City Council is taking a bold step by putting in place a Renovation Licence and Relocation Bylaw.
Rather than renovicting tenants, landlords would be required to get a renovation licence – a provincial form used to vacate units.
That means landlords have to apply for renovation licences within one week of serving tenants with the notice of eviction and that puts in motion the need to produce building permits, reports from engineers that units must be vacant for the work to progress and confirmation that tenant rights and entitlements have been provided and explained.
Landlords would then have to provide tenants with alternative accommodation or pay them compensation until they move back in to their unit.
That bylaw works in tandem with a new Safe Apartment Buildings Bylaw and an improved Vital Services and Property Standards Bylaws which effectively ensures landlords cannot force tenants out by ignoring necessary repairs.
“Anything Hamilton can do to enhance real protection for tenants is very important. The two bylaws passed point in a good direction in support of often beleaguered tenants,” said Ted McMeekin, Ward 15 councillor via email.
These bylaws set a provincial precedence that other municipalities are expected to follow. Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann worked with Hamilton ACORN to make this essential safeguard a reality.
It’s essential that the Ford government expand on Nann’s initiatives to create robust provincial rental housing policy that protects renters. Unfortunately, renters are often regarded as transients which means they are treated as second-class citizens whose needs, let alone their human right to housing, often goes unnoticed and unaddressed by profit driven governments like Ford’s.
Renters in Ontario deserve a provincial vacancy control policy that limits rent increases between tenancies to amounts decided under the Residential Tenancy Act, 2006 which is a 2.5 per cent increase in 2024.
A provincial vacancy control policy would remove the incentive for landlords to end long-term tenancies still covered by rent caps thus ending predatory evictions.
At the same time, the Ford government needs to re-instate rent caps on all existing and future rental units because removing rent caps created the current unlevel playing field and added yet another brick to the social murder wall of shame built on the foundational greed of Doug Ford, his conservative colleagues and Ford’s ‘friends.’
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For those who may know a precariously housed or unhoused person living in Hamilton, here’s a list of resources:
Hamilton ACORN: ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Canada is a multi-issue, membership-based community union of low- and moderate-income people. ACORN members believe that social and economic justice is best achieved by building community power for change. ACORN members fight landlords and corporations through direct action. They also fight for new and improved laws to protect their rights. Each member has a vote, and only members speak for the organization and have the authority to set the policy and determine the tactics of each group.
Housing UP!: Staff work with housed and homeless individuals across the city. Case Managers provide support for up to two years after the initial housing placement, rehousing individuals as needed, and connecting them to community resources to ensure they do not re-enter the homelessness system.
Helping Hands Street Mission: Men’s and women’s Christian faith-based programing and services.
Good Shepherd: Good Shepherd Non-Profit Homes Inc. provides supportive housing in Hamilton. Tenants are typically those with mental or physical disabilities and victims of domestic violence. Good Shepherd Square offers rental units at 20% below the average market rental costs.
Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS): Once a permanent site has been chosen for the Tiny Shelters, HATS intends to provide warm, safe and temporary tiny homes - with wrap-around supports - for those experiencing homelessness in Hamilton.
Tiny home community in Waterloo: The Region of Waterloo did construct 50 private cabins last April. The community includes a communal hub with a cafeteria, bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities as well as health, mental health and addiction supports. The Working Centre in Kitchener staffs the site.
However, the region has over 1,000 unhoused folks, so there’s a long road ahead. Waterloo Region also chose to put the cabins next to a dump site and transportation into town is difficult due to the lack of bus service.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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Predatory rental evictions fueling the housing crisis