Rexdale renters urge city to crack down on poor conditions at apartment complex
Social Sharing
Greg Desgroseilliers has dealt with repeat flooding inside his Toronto apartment, but he doesn't live in a flood plain nor is it the result of thunderous rain storms.
His place floods when his neighbours use the shared laundry room.
He said dirty laundry water repeatedly flooded the 21 Bergamot Ave. townhouse he moved into in 2008, wrecking its parquet flooring so many times Desgroseilliers has now just painted the concrete subfloor and gotten used to mopping it up.
He's also stopped calling his landlord, Pinedale Properties Ltd., who he said previously just did cosmetic fixes and put down a replacement floor that felt like "Jenga" underfoot.
"I just felt like it's a losing battle," Desgroseilliers told CBC Toronto as he provided our reporter a tour of his place.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow was also at the apartment complex on Saturday. She was invited by tenants who are pressing the city to bolster its RentSafeTO program, which is designed to ensure landlords meet maintenance standards.
Chow's council has sought to improve RentSafeTO enforcement in recent years, but renters in various parts of the city have said it still lacks teeth.
Chow said she can see why. The Bergamot buildings' rankings on RentSafe's website are between 89 and 91 per cent.
"It does not look like a 90 per cent building for me," Chow said.
"It's not a good quality of life when you cannot use your laundry. It's not a good quality of life when your floor gets flooded. And it's terrible quality of life when there is an entrance where there's no ramp and if you're in a wheelchair you can't get in. That's hard."
Chow promised tenants that the building inspections carried out by bylaw officers would improve.
"It has not been perfect, but it will improve. OK, you have my word, it will improve," Chow said.
Pinedale Properties Ltd., which manages both rental buildings and commercial sites while also serving as a developer, runs the buildings.
CBC Toronto has sought comment from the company for this story but hasn't heard back as of 7 p.m. Saturday. This story will be updated if Pinedale responds.
Tenants asked to pay for upgrades that landlord keeps: ACORN
Saturday's tour was organized by ACORN Toronto, a civic group focused on improving the lives of low-and-moderate-income people in the city that also helps tenants organize.
The organization has publicly called Pinedale a "slumlord" and posted a list of complaints from the tenants on its website.
Those issues include everything from pest infestations to poor security to tenants being asked to pay to upgrade appliances, which Pinedale is then allowed to keep when they move out.
ACORN provided paperwork that showed a tenant was asked in September of 2024 to spend $398.33 to upgrade a fridge, and that fridge would "remain the property of Pinedale Properties Ltd."
Monique Gordon, who works with ACORN and has lived at the complex for 13 years, said she has faced harassment from the landlord for speaking out about poor conditions including poor plumbing, lack of temperature control and more.
Gordon said she's been given an eviction for mid-July, though she's vowing to fight it, and has heard several other renters are in the same situation.
City staff were present at that March meeting, and ACORN said it won a commitment from those workers to investigate potential violations at the building.
Coun. Vincent Crisanti, who represents the area where the buildings are located, also attended Saturday's event and encouraged tenants to remain unified and keep speaking up. He said his office is engaged with the work of seeking improvements.
For her part, Chow once again said if the company doesn't make improvements the city will step in to do the work, and then send the company the bill.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Fire damages homes in Montreal's Sud-Ouest
A four-alarm fire damaged at least nine homes inside a three-storey building in Montreal's Sud-Ouest borough on Sunday night. More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze after 911 calls were made at 7:15 p.m. about the incident on Hadley and Cardinal streets. There were no reported injuries, and the Red Cross has been deployed to take care of those forced to evacuate their homes.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
No injuries reported after house fire in Etobicoke
Toronto Fire says no injuries were reported after a house went up in flames on June 30, 2025. No injuries were reported after a house in Etobicoke went up in flames early Monday morning. Firefighters were called to the home on Martin Grove Road, south of Rathburn Road, at 3:10 a.m. When crews arrived, they found the two-storey home was fully engulfed. The property was unoccupied at the time. Toronto Fire said the fire was extinguished and no injuries have been reported. Nearby homes were evacuated. TTC busses were deployed to the area to shelter displaced residents. A preliminary investigation has found that the home was being renovated, according to Toronto Fire, which added it's highly possible the second floor has collapsed due to the ongoing construction. The cause of the fire is unclear.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Winnipeg bus riders 'trying to be open-minded' about new transit network
Social Sharing Winnipeggers now have a new bus network, which will mean learning new routes, stops and bus numbers. On Sunday, Winnipeg Transit launched its new primary transit network, which it calls the most significant single-day transformation in its history It replaces the city's decades-old "hub-and-spoke" model, where buses meandered through outlying neighbourhoods before heading downtown. In the new "spine-and-feeder" system, buses follow a more grid-like pattern, with straighter routes along major arteries, and smaller feeder routes connecting to residential areas. While the changes only took effect on Sunday, the plan has been in the works for years. Winnipeg Transit posted the new schedules online weeks ago, adding a feature to its website that allowed riders to plan their trips using the new routes, and has been changing signage to prepare riders. Transit users CBC spoke with last week, before the new routes began operating, raised concerns — but some also said they were willing to give the changes a chance. Katherine Morgan, a retiree living in south St. Vital, says she's had a passion for public transportation ever since working on a school project about it in Grade 12, and uses the bus to get just about everywhere. She expects the new bus network to come with both benefits and drawbacks for her. "I am trying to be open-minded," she said. The redesign has reduced the total number of stops in Transit's network, removing about 1,700 of the 5,200 stops in the city and installing about 460 new ones, for a total of about 4,000 bus stops. "It's quite a few stops that [they're] taking. It seems to be all the stops that I use," Morgan said. However, she often rides the bus to Princess Auto Stadium, where she volunteers, and said that ride will be shorter thanks to several removed stops. But she says her ride home, which is often after 9 p.m., will involve a 15-minute walk from the nearest stop, whereas before, she could get off at a stop right in front of her home. "That's pretty frustrating. I don't want to be walking home 15 minutes in the dark, trying not to trip." Jarod Strelnikow says he rode the bus every day for almost 20 years, but bought a truck after learning the bus he rode home to The Maples would stop running before the end of his evening shift as a health-care aide. "You can have reliable bus service all you want, but if you're not running it late into the evening, or into the night, it's useless," he said. More transfers but shorter trips: Transit While the new network relies on passengers transferring buses more often and walking longer distances to get to stops, Winnipeg Transit has said it will be more reliable and efficient thanks to straighter routes, fewer stops and routes that avoid travelling through congested downtown traffic. But both Morgan and Strelnikow raised concerns about the problems more frequent transfers and longer walks could pose for people who have disabilities, elderly riders or parents with children. Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit's manager of service delivery, acknowledged rider concerns about issues like how late buses will run, but says anonymized cellphone data was used to track where passengers were coming from and going to. "There's a lot of areas where ridership really, really drops off after, say, 10:30 at night. And only a handful of people ... are taking the bus for the last two or three hours of service. And it's just not financially sustainable to keep operating," he said. While some people will have to transfer more frequently, he says the increased frequency of the routes, and the fact that most routes have fewer turns and avoid downtown, will mean total trip times are shorter. "Just because there's a transfer doesn't necessarily mean it will take longer," he said. "And also, because we're focusing the frequency on the major corridors, especially if you're transferring from a primary network line to a primary network line, you won't really have much of a wait." Rick Theriault, another daily transit user, said last week he wasn't sure how the new network would affect his commute. "We'll see what happens. It looks confusing," he said. Radstrom encouraged anyone unsure about the new routes to try online tools to plan their trips, including Transit's Navigo trip planner, the Winnipeg Transit app or Google Maps. Blue-vested Winnipeg Transit "travel trainers" will also be going around to stops along major routes, helping people navigate the system. Winnipeg Transit says it will submit annual service plans to the city, based on feedback from the public through 311 and other sources, which will be used to make adjustments to routes, service levels and operating hours. For now, Morgan says she'll try out the new system before casting a final judgment.
