do
not deal with affordability. Since 85% of renters fall on the bottom third of income
earners, empty apartments would come from those who could no longer afford
them.14 If
the ?Tenant Protection Act? is to pass, rent supplements should be worked into the
proposal. Supplements would help tenants fill in the affordability gap created by
lifting controls. This is not the case under the proposal. Lifting controls would
seriously harm many people. Toronto?s city planning and development department
blames
the affordability gap for the increased usage of food banks. They say that if controls
are lifted, people will not have enough money for food. This will result in
unmanageable lines at the food bank.15 Alternative housing is another housing
program
that is going to come under attack by the changes. Also called special-care housing,
this program is the only thing keeping 47,000 people across Ontario off the streets.16
Alternative housing puts up single mothers, seniors, the disabled and people who
would
be otherwise homeless without it. The Residence Rights Act protects special-care
tenants from eviction. The proposal would repeal the R.R.A. to give landlords of care
homes the power to enter homes without notice to perform bed checks. They would
also be
able to flash evict abusive tenants who fail to pay rent or damage property. This
worries many because these are the people who are at most risk for homelessness.
Special-care tenants are not the only ones in danger. Because of this decades? poor
economy, the number of metro residents that were evicted doubled from
1990-1995.17 The
combined effect of lifting controls and more powerful eviction laws can only worsen
the
situation. Those who are forced out of their homes to get their controls lifted and
cannot afford a decontrolled unit, will slip through the cracks and onto the streets.
There would be more evictees with a greater proportion of these people becoming
Ontario?s homeless. Such was the case for Irwin Anderson. Irwin Anderson was one
of
three street people who froze to death last winter. The inquest involved linked the
deaths to a lack of affordable housing in Toronto. In particular, Anderson had been
evicted for non-payment of two months rent. But he had previously paid rent in his
apartment in the subsidized complex for five years. An arrangement for repayment
could
have been worked out. Instead, he was evicted. The frightening truth is that this
could happen to anyone, even the well educated. Mirsalah-Aldin Kompani, another of
the
three who froze last winter had an engineering degree from the University of
Kentucky.
At this point, tenants would not be shouting about their right to affordable housing,
they would be fighting for their basic right to a home. Their only refuge from the
cold would be confinement to a crowded hostel. These may be no better than the
streets
themselves. The Toronto Coalition Against Homelessness states that people loathe
these
places and that affordable housing should be the central focus since hostels only offer
a superficial solution to the real problem.18 Consequently, because of the
affordability gap, cuts to alternative/public housing and flash evictions, repealing
rent laws would split Ontario?s middle class into two, putting half up in condominiums,
while incarcerating the others in hostels. Since the strength of society depends on its
middle class and its ability to keep people off the streets, the proposal should be
rejected.
For these reasons, the proposed ?Tenant Protection Act? damages society as it
attacks Ontarians? appanage to affordable housing, restricts their movability and
erodes
the middle class. The change would take away positive intervention and let the nature
of the markets decide a redistribution of wealth. Many would live on the land owned
by
an elite few. This is not equitable so government intervention in the markets must
remain. When the majority of peoples? happiness and values are protected against
the
advantageous elite, then that is a sign that a society is just.
Endnotes
1 Ministry of Housing, The 1996 Rent Control Guideline, p.1.
2 Toronto Star, Critics fear pending bill will ?strip tenant rights?, June 26, 1996,
p.A7.
3 ibid.
4 Toronto Star, High rents leaving no money for food, March 31, 1996, p.A6.
5 Toronto Star, Province plans to protect tenants, June 25, 1996, p.A1.
6 Toronto Star, Ontario prepares to scrap rents controls, September 9, 1995, p.A3.
7 Toronto Star, Tenants get special line to snitch on a landlord, June 24, 1996, p.A7.
8 Toronto Star, Rent controls not scrapped, Leach says, June 7, 1996, p.A10.
9 The Tenant Bulletin, C.S.T.R. fights rent control reform, July 26, 1996, p.1.
10 ibid.
11 Toronto Star, Province plans to protect tenants, June 25, 1996, p.A1.
12 Toronto Star, Tenants get special line to snitch on a landlord, June 24, 1996, p.A7.
13 D. Edwin and R.Vogt, Basic Economics, p.56.
14 Toronto Star, High rents leaving no money for food, March 31, 1996, p.A6.
15 ibid.
16 Toronto Star, New tenant law could hurt most vulnerable, May 28, 1994, p.L6.
17 Toronto Star, Anguish of Eviction Day, July 7,1996, p.A1.
18 Toronto Sun, Aid homeless, Harris told, June 25, 1996, p.15.
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