A city staff report is warning that a provincial housing bill could diminish protections for Toronto tenants living in rental buildings slated to be demolished by developers.

Bill 97, which the province has dubbed the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, includes a proposed regulatory framework for municipal rental replacement that city staff say could alter a requirement that developers replace rental housing for tenants living in buildings that are being demolished to build new condos.

The city’s current policies, which have been in effect since 2006, stipulate that developers who intend to demolish rental buildings of more than six units replace existing apartments for those tenants. These units must be of similar size and offered for the same rent for a period of at least 10 years. Support must also be provided to tenants during the redevelopment of the site.

“This policy framework has successfully secured the replacement of approximately 5,000 existing rental units and ensured tenants are provided with compensation to allow them to find alternative housing,” the report read.

"Without this critical policy framework, it is likely that significantly more rental units would have been demolished and not replaced due to new developments. This would have negatively impacted both the supply of rental units and availability of affordable rental units."

 

Staff fear ‘erosion to the affordability of rental housing’

In the bill, proposed amendments to the City of Toronto Act have been included that would provide the minister with enhanced regulatory powers, but staff say “very few details” have been provided about the use of those powers.

“The changes signal reduced support for tenants, a shift away from 'like-for-like' replacement of rental housing, and an erosion to the affordability of rental housing,” the report said.

“Potential regulations could seek to allow replacement rental units to be significantly smaller than the units they are replacing, limit the City's ability to restrict the rents for replacement units, reduce tenant compensation, allow owners to provide cash-in-lieu of replacement units, and/or create new definitions of affordable rental housing.”

There are 73 active rental demolition applications in Toronto involving more than 3,440 rental units, which are all subject to the city’s current rental replacement policy.

“The minister could determine transitional matters for these mid-stream applications, which could result in different processes and protections for tenants compared to what has already been communicated to them,” the report read.

A 45-day consultation period on the subject began on April 6 but according to the report, city staff have “not been invited to participate in any form of consultation” when it comes to developing new regulations.

City staff are recommending that the province not move forward with regulations for municipal rental replacement bylaws until “meaningful consultation with the City and stakeholders has taken place.”

Victoria Podbielski, a spokesperson for Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark, said the province aims to set “common rules” across Ontario when it comes to rental replacement bylaws.

“As rental replacement bylaws vary among municipalities, the changes proposed as part of the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act would help enable the province to create a balanced framework governing municipal rental replacement bylaws that streamlines the construction and revitalization of rental housing, while protecting tenants,” the statement read.

“We have not made any changes to existing rent replacement bylaws that are in effect currently in some municipalities. They remain in place. In fact, we are proposing to build on those bylaws and are exploring a framework where any municipality that establishes a bylaw must require that replacement units have the same core features (i.e., same number of bedrooms) as the units they are replacing, and requiring that tenants are given the right of first refusal to the new unit at similar rent.”

 

Current protections aren’t enough, resident says

Michael Whitehead, a resident of 25 St. Mary’s Street, a 259-unit high-rise rental building in the city’s downtown core that is slated for demolition, told CP24.com Tuesday that even current protections for tenants don’t go far enough.

“Tenants feel that the plan is grossly inadequate,” said Whitehead, who has lived in the building, located south of Bloor Street East between Bay and Yonge streets, for the past 28 years.

The owner of the building plans to demolish the current structure to build two new towers that will be 54 and 59 storeys respectively.

Whitehead said that the deal being offered to tenants only provides them with a rent gap payment equivalent to 50 to 60 per cent of current market rents in the neighbourhood.

“People will have to go outside the neighbourhood (to find new housing)… That’s damaging for senior citizens, who will lose their support network,” he said.

Whitehead said the deal also does not properly support vulnerable residents.

“We wanted, in particular, special needs tenants to get assistance in finding new housing,” he said. “There was a promise to do that and that was then cancelled.”

He said there are at least 60 units in the building with vulnerable residents, including a 92-year-old who has lived in the building for more than 45 years.

Whitehead doesn’t suspect the province’s changes will impact the deal currently offered to tenants at his building, but noted that the city does have a right to be concerned.

“One would hope that the provincial government will see wisdom and not attempt to change the rules retroactively,” he added.

NDP MPP Jessica Bell, who serves as the party’s housing critic, told CP24.com Tuesday that she has spoken to many renters in the city who fear their rent-controlled buildings will be demolished.

“They don’t know where in Toronto they are going to go because they can’t afford the rents that landlords are asking for,” she said.

“We have a housing affordably crisis in our city. We shouldn’t be sacrificing renters in order to meet our rental supply needs.”

She added that many people are simply leaving the city and province to find a more affordable place to live.

“Many municipalities understand that we need to protect our private affordable housing stock, which is why (city staff) have issued the report, calling on the Ontario government to protect renters,” Bell said.

“Are we a city for the well-to-do or do we want to be a city for everybody?”