Latest news with #housingAdvocacy
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Toronto needs more housing. Are garden suites a potential solution?
The City of Toronto is hoping new measures to cut design costs and speed up permit approval times for laneway and garden suites may encourage homeowners to build more, but some advocates and experts say they're skeptical the structures could be a viable solution to the city's housing crunch. Mayor Olivia Chow announced on Friday that the city will provide free design plans for laneway and garden suites to cut costs and speed up permit approval times, in its latest bid to boost construction of new housing. The pre-approved plans are compliant with the Ontario Building Code and eliminate the need to hire an architect, she said. "It's simple: Toronto is growing and we must lower the cost of building homes and make it easier, and approve them faster," Chow said at a news conference Friday. But a limited number of properties in the city have backyards large enough to build these suites, said Stephanie Bertolo, board member of More Neighbours Toronto, a housing advocacy organization. "Anything that helps reduce the cost of development and gets things built faster is a win," Bertolo said. "Unfortunately I think that laneway housing and garden suites aren't going to be a big part of the solution to the housing affordability crisis." Bertolo said a better solution would be building more small apartment buildings or sixplexes to increase housing density across the city. The city first passed an as-of-right zoning bylaw for laneway suites in 2018, and for garden suites in 2022. But only 166 laneway suites and 114 garden suites have been completed since these bylaws were passed, Chow said on Friday. Bertolo said these numbers are a "drop in the bucket" compared to the housing needs across Toronto. WATCH | Laneway, garden suite designs among new city housing measures announced Friday: The city defines a laneway suite as a self-contained residential unit located on the same lot as a detached house, semi-detached house, townhouse or other low-rise house. It is typically located in the backyard next to a public laneway. A garden suite is similarly a self-contained living accommodation usually built in a backyard, but is not on a public lane. Garden and laneway suites typically range between 500 to 600 square feet, said Sarah Cipkar, founder and CEO of Resimate, a company that helps homeowners build in their backyard in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area and the Niagara region. Cipkar said her company is seeing demand from multigenerational families who want to build suites for aging parents or young adults who are struggling to enter the housing market. "It creates all these unique opportunities for families to be closer together," she said. Projects can cost between $200,000 to $350,000, she said. Cipkar said she would like the city make the free suite designs available to manufacturers, who can then build them off site. "Part of the issue with the pre-approved design catalogue is that they're not field-tested," she said. "Homeowners can't touch and feel them. They can just see them and they're like, 'maybe that's a good unit? I can't really tell." Susannah Bunce, an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Toronto, said the intention behind the city's free designs are good as they provide a "guidebook" for homeowners and can streamline the approval process. But these suites are likely to be concentrated in wealthier neighbourhoods in Toronto that have wider and larger lots, rather than the downtown core, where more affordable housing is needed, she said. And without city programs in place to help out homeowners with expenses, such as a rebate or a forgivable loan program, she said these suites may not be rented out at affordable rates. "With the hidden costs that come with garden suite construction, then there is an incentive for homeowners to try and recoup the costs that they have put up front by renting out a unit at a higher rate," Bunce said. "It does then cut out a lot of people who are suffering from the affordable housing crisis in Toronto." Cipkar said St. Catherines is an example of a municipality that has successfully encouraged these backyard suites. She said the municipality has financial incentives to homeowners and also provides timelines for stages such as when homeowners can expect to receive a permit using pre-approved designs. The new measures come after city council voted last month to allow sixplexes in nine wards, with an option for the remaining 16 wards to opt-in at a later date. Staff had recommended sixplexes be permitted city-wide, but some councillors vehemently objected to the proposal. Other measures announced by Chow on Friday include expanded online applications for new housing units, which she said will reduce the time it takes for them to be processed.
Bloomberg
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Sprawl Is Still Not the Answer
Urban sprawl is having a moment. Sick of the lack of progress in addressing the US shortage of 4.5 million homes, a whole new set of advocates are subscribing to an approach best described as 'just build houses everywhere.'
CTV News
03-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
‘It's a plague': Advocates renew calls for renoviction bylaw in Kitchener
Local advocates are renewing their calls for a bylaw that would prevent renters from losing their homes and protect them from bad landlords. Known as a 'renoviction,' the term refers to the practice of forcing a tenant out of a building, citing the need for extensive renovations or repairs in the unit. On Monday, more than a dozen people took their fight to Kitchener City Hall, hoping to grab the attention of councillors and city staff. 'People need a renoviction bylaw passed,' said Ryan Murdock, secretary of the Waterloo chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). 'They need it passed now. They needed it passed yesterday.' Linda Vos is one of several tenants at 250 Frederick St., who received a renoviction notice earlier this year. While her case was dismissed by the Landlord Tenant Board last week, she said other people in her building aren't as lucky. ACORN RALLY Local housing advocates are renewing their calls for a bylaw in Kitchener that would prevent renters from losing their homes and protect them from bad landlords. (Alexandra Holyk/CTV News) '(The landlords) seem to be targeting the individuals that have lower rents, that have been living in my building for decades,' said Vos. To put the problem into perspective, ACORN said it surveyed 160 tenants in Waterloo Region, with 28 per cent saying they received one or more eviction notices in the last five years. Of those, 54 per cent were notices to vacate for renovations or demolition. 'It's a plague that's really going across the country,' said Murdock. 'And that's why you see other municipalities, other regions stepping up and protecting their citizens, protecting their tenants, and that's what we need Kitchener to do here.' Back in February, city staff told council they needed time to review how similar bylaws worked in other jurisdictions like Hamilton, London and Toronto. They're expected to share their findings in a report at a committee meeting on June 16. 'There's no reason that Kitchener can't do it,' said ACORN's Ken Vogelpohl. 'All we've been hearing is excuses. What we want is some action.' But according to one city councillor, action requires resources – something the city doesn't have. 'The province hasn't provided the tools to us to do that,' said Ward 9 Councillor Debbie Chapman in an interview with CTV News. 'But the fact that these other cities are doing it, I'd love to see Kitchener follow suit.' It's still not clear when a renoviction bylaw could come into force, but advocates say they're not going anywhere until something is done. 'It's time to actually do something,' said Vogepohl. 'We're going to be here. We're going to be at the mics. We're going to be putting more pressure on council to make sure that this happens.'
CTV News
01-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Montreal's Housing Hotline fundraising to keep decades-old service running
Arnold Bennett wants to be there for tenants in trouble and is fundraising to keep the Montreal Housing Hotline connected. Moving day is just a month away for Quebecers, and Arnold Bennett wants to be there for tenants in trouble. He's been running the Montreal Housing Hotline since the 1970s. 'People call with all kinds of questions. We can do advocacy in the sense of steering them in the right direction and proposing strategies and referring them to lawyers and other things that the rental board will not do,' said Bennett. He says he about 30 calls per day, and the hotline is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. All expenses are paid out of his own pocket, and now he's asking the community for help. Earlier this week, Bennett set up a GoFundMe hoping it will help cover some of the costs – which include phone and internet bills, electricity, technical support and a few staff members. It's also one of the few resources for anglophones in Quebec. The province is in the throes of a housing crunch, and Bennett is no stranger to housing policy. He says legislation has had some major improvements since the he started a housing clinic in the '80s. He was among those who fought for bans on condo conversions and pushed back against renovictions. Bennett Arnold Bennett wants to be there for tenants in trouble and is fundraising to keep the Montreal Housing Hotline connected. (Swidda Rassy/CTV) He remembers when rent increases between 12 and 30 per cent were allowed, 'and it had extremely serious effects on people.' Now he says politicians are rolling protections back. 'The right of tenants to be able to transfer or sign a lease was undermined by the current government, causing a serious problem in terms of being able to avoid discrimination in housing,' he said. 'The last three years got very bad, and that's combined with another cyclical problem, a housing shortage. And that housing shortage means that the door is open to gouging and units aren't available.' The problem isn't just hitting low-income families – it's extended well into the middle class. 'Everybody's having problems,' said Bennett. 'There's never enough services … Everybody's short-staffed and there's time constraints.' And Bennett isn't just getting calls from Montrealers. He says people from Laval, Quebec City and the townships reach out because 'there was nothing where they were, especially if they were anglophones or allophones.' Bob Jones Bob Jones was one of Arnold Bennett's first hires for his housing hotline. He calls Bennett a 'guiding light' for tenants. (Swidda Rassy/CTV) Bob Jones remembers when he first started volunteering with Bennett in the late '80s. A friend of his needed help with a repossession case, but Bennett was seeing hundreds of people every week. So, Jones decided to volunteer. Three months later he was one of Bennett's first hires. He remembers visiting tenants who had issues with their landlords who cut off their electricity and calling the police. 'We'd say, there's a theft of services here. Sometimes, we'd have to explain the process to the police, because they weren't that knowledgeable in rental law, and we tried to get the problem solved,' Jones told CTV News. 'Sometimes it involved sitting down, writing a letter. Sometimes it involved calling the landlord and seeing if they could fix it.' He says Bennett's dedication is needed. Even on weekends, Bennett will sometimes keep the phone line open. Jones calls him a 'guiding light' at a time where rents are skyrocketing, and people are facing evictions and false repossessions. 'If something doesn't happen soon, there'll be more people homeless on the streets than able to live in their apartments,' said Jones. 'Because right now for NDG, the average rent for three and a half is $1,300 that is unaffordable for most people working minimum wage or even two jobs at minimum wage … and some tenants don't know their rights.' Though he's hoping the community will have his back, Bennett says he's prepared to keep going 'hand to mouth.' Nothing will stop him from being there for tenants. 'Retire? You mean, when they carry me out on a stretcher. It'll have to be involuntary,' he said. With files from CTV News Montreal's Swidda Rassy
CBC
01-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Founder of Montreal's Housing Hotline seeks help to keep decades-long service running
Social Sharing Reminiscing with a chuckle, Arnold Bennett describes his younger self as "one of those student radicals back in the day." Bennett first wrote an article about tenants' rights in 1969 for the McGill Daily, one of the university's campus newspapers. Within a few years, he had established himself as a go-to resource on the issue of renters' rights in Quebec, going door-to-door and encouraging tenants to get together and speak up against housing injustices. In 1974, he launched the Housing Hotline — a phone service that helps frustrated tenants, and some landlords — navigate disputes. Decades later, however, Bennett is seeking help to avoid shutting it down. There were much fewer housing advocacy groups then there are now and services in English were limited, Bennett recalls, but he's adamant that his hotline still helps address a major need. Fighting for your rights, he says, involves more than just knowing the law. "People still need interpretation. They need to be pointed strategically in certain directions. It's not just a matter of knowing what the rules are," Bennett said. "You have to know what's the best approach that you should use in dealing with a certain landlord or a certain problem, how to organize with your neighbours, how to use the city inspectors." WATCH | Here are your options if your landlord raises your rent: Landlord raising your rent? Here are your rights in Quebec 55 years ago Duration 2:18 For much of the last 50 years or so, Bennett has funded the hotline out of pocket, using his revenue from a business he used to run. He's now raising funds to help cover basic expenses like a landline, a cellphone or internet access. "I have fees for certain accounting services for reports that I have to submit to the government," he said. "Even before you start talking about paying for an assistant, or anything like that — it adds up." In addition to the hotline, Bennett ran a housing clinic from 1981 up until 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced such in-person activities to shut down. The free clinics were attended by housing lawyers and legal assistants who could offer legal advice and represent tenants at the housing tribunal. Bennett also served as a Montreal city councillor during the 1970s and 80s. 'A major loss' if hotline shuts down Bob Jones, a resident of Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood, remembers walking into the housing clinic in 1988 with a friend who was getting evicted from his home. He described the clinic that day as "utter chaos," with 80 to 100 people waiting in line to see the clinic's staff to get advice. Jones, who had just left a job, offered to volunteer at the clinic, and he eventually spent 20 years working for or with Bennett. "Some of us would actually go with them to the [housing tribunal] and we'd prepare their cases, keep them calm," he said. "We weren't allowed to talk or plead but we had already prepared them beforehand so that they knew what to say and when to say it." Marvin Rotrand, a former Montreal city councillor, says he met Bennett just before the 1982 municipal elections. He said the tenants' rights advocate's ability to provide "effective service in English" is something a lot of the newer housing groups still fail to provide today. "A lot of people turn to Arnold," Rotrand said. "Clearly, it would be a major loss in services if the Housing Hotline had to close." Bennett is confident the hotline will remain, even if the service isn't what it once was. "They'll have to carry me out on a stretcher," he said laughing. WATCH | Tips on how to handle an eviction notice: Got an eviction notice? Here's what to do 1 year ago Duration 1:00 Eviction and repossession notices in Quebec are often issued in late December, but tenants have options if they want to contest them.
