Just as the City of Kitchener has continued in its push to adopt a new ‘Renoviction’ bylaw, a local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) has headed to Queen’s Park to table new legislation in the hopes of protecting local renters.
Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy has tabled legislation titled the Keeping People Housed Act, working to better defend tenants against ‘bad faith’ renovation-based evictions.
According to Clancy, the number of N13 notices, which are used to allow a landlord to evict a tenant for repairs, renovations, and more, increased by as much as 300 per cent over a 5-year span from 2017 to 2022.
“Right now, more than 87,000 people in Ontario are homeless,” Clancy stated.
“Many of those folks have been forced from their homes because of an illegal eviction or rent increase.”
Clancy said the purpose of the new legislation is to reintroduce rent control in the province, add vacancy controls to limit rent increases, while also working to “crack down on illegal evictions” through added assurances for landlords before N13 notices could be issued.
“I’ve heard from seniors in my riding, for example, that are struggling to get by on their fixed incomes, only to be met with a false renoviction threat or coercion to leave their homes.”
She pointed not only to those landlords, but also to the provincial government under Premier Doug Ford for allowing the current housing landscape to become what it is today.
She said they’ve allowed units of what could be affordable housing to be snatched up by corporations or those looking to use a property solely as an investment option.
“For every one unit of affordable housing built in the Waterloo Region, we lose 39,” Clancy said.
“That’s because this government stands by and watches while renters are gouged, harassed, or lose their homes. It’s time to get corporate interests out of housing markets.”
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