Real estate speculation has supercharged Toronto’s housing crisis. Is there anything city council can do to protect renters from the goals of investors?
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A recent report found homelessness has become worse under Ford, a consequence of the province’s underinvestment in social housing.
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Private equity firms are targeting low-income apartment buildings across the city as the ultimate investment: buying them out, evicting tenants and renovating the empty units. The new rents, subject to increases without controls, are so high that they’re sending some residents to the food bank.
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They’re ultra-rich, predominantly American, and over the next eight years they’re bringing 21,000 units without rent control to a new building near you.
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Rats in the fruit bowl, fire-code mishaps, poltergeists and more – nine Toronto writers tell WEP what life was like in their first Toronto flat.
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In partnership with Maytree, WEP issued a call for imaginative, innovative designs for housing 1,000 unsheltered individuals living in the city. Among the raft of submissions that came in, these four stood out. Steeped in practicality and creativity, their solutions – which you can read through here – also honour every person’s human right to dignified housing.
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Writer Megan Kinch talks to construction workers dealing with homelessness while trying to hold down a job.
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Recent land use changes mean sleepy, residential Dovercourt will be transformed by its new “major street” status, paving the way for higher, denser multiplexes and more commercial space. One architect calls it the European-style solution that “Toronto is craving”.
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“Hey Jenn! How’s it going? Seems like the art career is going well on Instagram.” “It’s funny you should say that. That’s just the illusion of social media. Here’s how I paid my rent this month…”
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Our new mayor must put the housing issue first, writes Tim Harper, who scoured the frontrunners' plans for proof of a progressive, workable way forward.
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These videos, examining the housing crisis in Toronto through a human-rights lens, were made by the West End Phoenix with the support of the Maytree Foundation. In them, we meet locals advocating for solutions in an affordability climate that’s pushing residents to the brink.
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Illegal increases, ramshackle conditions, bullying tactics from landlords – renters in Toronto are facing a free fall. For almost half of the city's population, finding and keeping a decent rental has become nearly impossible. And as housing prices skyrocket, their ranks can only grow.
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The solution to Toronto’s housing woes isn’t to build more supply, according to a group of experts who sketch a picture for writer Leslie Sinclair of what a healthier housing landscape looks like. As they see it, it’s about tipping the balance: clamping down on units designed as commodities for investors and increasing the flow of housing that meets a wider swath of residents’ needs.
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When the province talks about affordable housing goals, what tends to get painted is an outdated scene. To seriously improve the current housing calamity, policy must tuck itself under, and soundly support, our most vulnerable residents first.
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Ben Scott, a tenant at LivMore High Park, received notice that his rent would increase by 11.6 per cent. That increase would bump up his monthly payment by $300, a figure that Scott says would make life unaffordable for him and his son.
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There are more than 700,000 people under the age of 25 living in Toronto, many of them struggling to cope with our city’s skyrocketing housing costs, surging inflation and uneven access to services and resources. We canvassed front line workers at Toronto-based youth organizations for their toughest questions — and put them to 59 city council hopefuls from eight West End wards.
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On daily strolls through Parkdale with my dog, gentrification’s tremors are all around me – nowhere more noticeable than in the accelerating speed of life on the sidewalk.
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Parkdale is an eviction hot spot. The number of notices that get served in the southwest neighbourhood are double the city average. And nowhere is the tension between affordable living and “financialized” landlords clearer than on West Lodge Avenue.
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My roof started to leak during the ice storm. As I wait for Bob Rose & his son Graeme (near life-long Parkdalians) to talk about the housing crisis, I can hear the drip echo in my mind.
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