Author: R2HTO

Following prolonged advocacy from renter groups and advocates across the city, Toronto City Council (nearly) unanimously approved a new bylaw on November 13, 2024, that would help address rising rates of renovictions. Renovictions can happen in a few ways. Sometimes a landlord will refuse to allow a renter to return to their unit after renovations are complete, even though the renter had indicated they wanted to return before they moved out for the renovations to be carried out. Other times, a landlord may illegally raise the rent for a renter who returns to their unit after a renovation, or they may simply not undertake major renovations after evicting renters.  

The Rental Renovation Licence bylaw includes a number of key provisions that aim to protect renters and preserve affordability, while ensuring rental units are kept in a state of good repair. Under the new bylaw, landlords must: 

• Apply for a Rental Renovation Licence within seven days of issuing a renter an N13 notice to end their tenancy. 

• Obtain a building permit before applying for the Rental Renovation Licence. 

• Obtain and submit a report from a qualified person identifying that the renovation or maintenance work is so extensive that the renter must leave the unit, and pay a Rental Renovation Licence fee of $700.00 per unit. 

• Post a Tenant Information Notice to inform the renter of the licence application and to enable the renter to seek information about their rights. 

• Complete a plan to provide renter(s) who choose to return to their units with temporary, comparable housing at similar rents, or provide monthly rent-gap payments (based on post-2015 average market rents) to cover the rent difference. 

• Provide moving allowances to all renters.  

• Provide renters with severance compensation where the renter is choosing not to return to the unit after the renovation or repair work is complete. 

• Post the issued Rental Renovation Licence on the door of the unit. 

The bylaw will come into effect on July 31, 2025, and additional funding will be made available through the Toronto Tenant Support Program in the interim period to support renters facing renovictions before the bylaw is in force. 

The bylaw incorporates many of the recommendations that R2HTO and other advocates shared through the City’s consultation process over the summer. In particular, we are glad to see a strong focus on accommodation, compensation, and information for renters, as well as resources to support monitoring, evaluation, and accountability processes. It is also promising that the bylaw will cover multi-tenant homes (MTH), as MTH renters are some of the city’s most marginalized communities and the most vulnerable to displacement.  

Leading up to the November 13, 2024 City Council meeting, R2HTO submitted a joint letter with WomanACT and deputed to the Planning and Housing Committee, outlining areas of support for the bylaw and opportunities for improvement, including: 

• Ensuring Tenant Accommodation Plans account for diverse renter needs and clearly outline conditions for a renter’s return to the unit. 

• Ensuring renters who are displaced due to emergency repairs or renovations have access to the same supports as other displaced renters. 

• Closing loopholes by developing a fulsome, integrated monitoring and accountability framework. 

• Addressing other types of formal and informal evictions, which could include developing a comprehensive rental housing licensing program. 

The adoption of this bylaw is a significant win for renters across the city and marks an important step forward in the City’s commitment to advance the right to housing. R2HTO will be monitoring the implementation of the bylaw closely to ensure that it achieves its goals of protecting renters, preserving affordability, and ensuring rental buildings are well maintained.

The City of Toronto is in the process of developing a new renovictions bylaw aimed at protecting renters from illegitimate evictions and preserving the dwindling stock of affordable housing. To gather public input, the City held a series of consultations from August 13 to September 30, 2024. These included in-person and virtual drop-in sessions, an online survey, and various focus groups. Below are our key recommendations for the proposed bylaw.

What can the City do to make the rules clearer and easier for landlords or property owners who want to renovate their apartments and follow the rules?

The City should take measures to ensure that landlords are well informed and have access to education and training opportunities, including by collaborating with community agencies. This should include a clear understanding of tenant rights and landlord responsibilities related to habitability standards to ensure that units are maintained in a state of good repair, and that renovations requiring vacant possession are rarely required. The City and landlords alike should work to ensure that tenant displacement is avoided at all costs and tenants’ security of tenure is protected through the Renovictions Bylaw.  

Ideally, the renovation licensing system should be integrated with the City’s RentSafeTO program and new multi-tenant housing licensing framework to form a more robust landlord licensing system that provides clear, accessible information and holds landlords accountable to upholding habitability and safety standards in all rental buildings. This would provide a more streamlined, accessible, and accountable process with clear direction for landlords. This system could also include stopgap measures to require landlords to explore all possible avenues to complete repairs and renovations without displacing tenants, which could include access to guidance, tools, and/or other supports. 

The Renovictions Bylaw should also ensure that there is a clear, accessible process for landlords to apply for a renovation license, without any loopholes and minimal exemptions. This could include tying the building permit application process to the licensing system to ensure landlords do not bypass the licensing system once they obtain their permits. This integrated licensing system would also provide opportunities for regular, ongoing checks and balances on renovation projects and tenant displacement. The City could also advocate to the provincial government to coordinate this process with the issuance of N13 notices by the Landlord and Tenant Board for a fulsome, integrated monitoring and accountability framework to ensure all parties are well-informed, renovations are being carried out in good faith, and tenants are adequately supported if vacant possession is required. 

The Renovictions Bylaw should also make clear that the onus of proof for renovations requiring vacant possession is on landlords, not tenants. In addition to license requirements (e.g., application fee, N13 notice, building permit, qualified persons report), this should also include landlord requirements related to tenant notification and accommodation plans, both before, during, and after the renovations are completed. To support this process, the City (potentially in collaboration with tenant support organizations) could create tools and/or templates to support both landlords and tenants in meeting the requirements of the Renovictions Bylaw (e.g., British Columbia Tenant Notice: Exercising Right of First Refusal). 

Licence applications should also explicitly require consent or confirmation from the tenant that they agree to the arrangements outlined in the tenant accommodation plans, including as it relates to temporary accommodation or compensation (which should reflect asking rents and moving costs), as well as conditions for the tenant to return to the unit if they exercise their first right of refusal (e.g., rental rates and increases, occupancy of the same unit, access to amenities, etc.). For tenants that do not exercise their right of first refusal, the Bylaw should require landlords to provide adequate compensation for the loss of affordable housing (similar to the rent gap assistance for temporary relocation, reflecting asking rents). It is critical that any landlord costs (e.g., compensation through tenant accommodation plans and fines for non-compliance) are greater than the cost of doing business to deter bad faith activities. 

To ensure both landlords and tenants are well informed of their rights and responsibilities under the Renovictions Bylaw, the City should prioritize the hiring of additional staff, including for customer service, program support, and enforcement to ensure that: landlords applying for a renovation license have completed all the requirements; tenants have clear, accessible pathways to receive support and report complaints; and there is sufficient on-site enforcement to confirm that renovation activities are proceeding as outlined in the license and that tenants are adequately informed of progress updates.

What supports would you suggest that tenants need in order to exercise their rights to prevent a renoviction, and to understand their rights under a future Renovictions bylaw?  

It is critical that tenants have access to clear information about their housing rights, including as it relates to a future Renovictions Bylaw (e.g., tenant notification requirements, accommodation and compensation plans, exercising right of first refusal, where to access information and support, etc.). To support an equity and rights-based approach, this should include publicly accessible information in multiple languages and formats, with information about tenant rights and where to seek further information and/or support, including from the City and community agencies. As such, the City should work closely with community agencies that have close tenant connections (e.g., legal clinics, settlement agencies, etc.) to conduct a robust education and awareness raising campaign about the Renovictions Bylaw through a variety of formats (e.g., online, phone calls, door knocking, etc.).  

The City should also take a holistic, integrated approach to the implementation of the Renovictions Bylaw across various City departments to ensure that staff are well informed of the Bylaw requirements, as well as tenant rights and landlord responsibilities, to provide adequate service and support. As noted above, this will require resourcing for additional staff positions, including a secure and accessible pathway for tenants to seek information and report violations, as well as for follow up enforcement actions. 

Similarly, the City should ensure that tenants have access to adequate legal information and support. It is encouraging that the City is continuing to support community agencies through the Toronto Tenant Support Program, with a dedicated focus on the Renovictions Bylaw, and it will be equally important to ensure tenants are well informed of where they can access legal information and support across the city.  As noted above, this could also include access to guidance, tools, and templates related to exercising the right of first refusal, tenant notification requirements, and accommodation and compensation plans. To ensure accommodation plans are developed in good faith and with full tenant consent, the Renovictions Bylaw could also include a requirement for an independent tenant and/or legal verification process to oversee the development of the accommodation plans. Finally, the Renovictions Bylaw should provide flexibility around timelines (e.g., 120 day notice period) to ensure tenants have sufficient time to access legal information and support to make an informed decision. 

What are the most important things for the City to consider as it is developing a Renovictions bylaw for Toronto?

To ensure the City is taking a rights-based approach to the Renovictions Bylaw, it should be focused on preventing tenant displacement, protecting tenants’ security of tenure, and preserving affordability across the city. In the context of the current rental housing crisis and provincial landscape (i.e., soaring rents, low vacancy rates, few affordable options, and vacancy decontrol), landlords are strongly incentivized to evict tenants paying below market rents in order to bring in tenants that can pay higher market rates. This pattern disproportionally impacts low-income, racialized, and other marginalized tenants, leading to increasing rates of housing precarity and homelessness. 

As such, where vacant possession is proven to be necessary under the Renovictions Bylaw, tenants should be adequately supported and compensated in a way that reflects the current cost of renting (i.e., asking rents, rather than average market rents), as well as moving costs (both in and out). Tenant accommodations plans should reflect a rights-based approach, recognizing different tenant needs based on neighbourhood services/amenities (e.g., childcare, schools, healthcare, employment, etc.), family size/status, accessibility, and cultural adequacy.  

As noted above, the Renovictions Bylaw should ensure that tenants are well informed throughout the entire process, including as it relates to their rights (e.g., right of first refusal, notification requirements, accommodation and compensation, etc.), progress updates on the license application and renovation process, where to seek legal information and support, and channels to report violations. 

The City should also seek to integrate the Renovictions Bylaw with the new multi-tenant housing (MTH) licensing framework, recognizing that MTH tenants are some of the most marginalized communities in the city, and the most vulnerable to displacement. As noted above, the City should take a holistic landlord licensing approach, which should include sufficient resourcing for the MTH renovation program, in addition to temporary accommodations for displaced tenants. 

To ensure the Renovictions Bylaw meets its stated goals of protecting tenants and preserving affordable, habitable homes, it should include robust and well-resourced monitoring, enforcement, and evaluation mechanisms, including a sufficient staff complement. This could also include licensing parameters to prevent mass evictions and the impacts of gentrification of lower income neighbourhoods, such as requiring licenses for individual units rather than whole buildings and/or limiting the number of licenses available per year and/or by neighbourhood. 

Above and beyond renovictions, the City should also explore opportunities to address and prevent other types of formal and informal evictions that tenants are facing across the city, which could include implementing a comprehensive rental housing licensing program similar to what some municipalities in British Columbia have adopted (e.g., New Westminster, Ladysmith).

The 2024 City of Toronto Budget commits historic new investments for affordable housing and supports for renters across the city, marking a significant departure from previous budgets focused on keeping property tax increases low and prioritizing homeowners over renters. R2HTO strongly supports the budget’s increased investments toward the preservation of affordable housing and protections for renters, which are critical to advancing the right to housing.  

In particular, we are glad to see a significant increase in funding for MURA beginning this year (funded in part through dedicated funds from the federal HAF), which will expedite the acquisition and preservation of more affordable housing across the city. We are also encouraged by increased investments toward Toronto Rent Bank and TTSP, greater staff complements for EPIC and RentSafeTO, and additional federal funding for the COHB, all of which will help ensure low-income and other vulnerable renters can remain housed.  

We commend Mayor Chow for demonstrating strong acumen around provincial and federal collaboration, securing much needed funding to meet the needs of Toronto residents. Additionally, we support the property tax rate increases, including for multi-residential properties, which will protect renters in rent-controlled units from untenable AGIs. 

Notwithstanding these important investments and initiatives, there are a few key areas where the 2024 budget could have gone further to realize the right to housing for renters across the city.  

Of critical concern is the lack of funding for renter support, education, and protection under the new MTH framework. This poses a significant risk of displacement and homelessness, considering that MTH’s provide some of the city’s most affordable housing to some of its most vulnerable residents. As the City prepares to roll out its new MTH framework in April, it should explore options to support renters, in addition to further engagement and education with MTH operators to discourage and mitigate potential MTH losses. 

While we support the increased investments toward other renter support programs, they fall short of Mayor Chow’s election campaign commitments, which included tripling EPIC and doubling Toronto Rent Bank funding to meet the depth of need facing renters. In fact, as noted below, EPIC received less new funding in the 2024 budget compared to the previous year, while Toronto Rent Bank received the same level of new funding. Further, while additional staff for RentSafeTO will help increase capacity for unit assessments and repairs, the program could have a much greater impact through a more robust landlord licensing system. 

With respect to affordable housing preservation, the Mayor previously committed $100 million annually toward an affordable housing acquisition program, whereas MURA will ultimately receive $100 million over three years. In addition to exploring options to continue scaling up MURA, the City must adequately monitor and report on its efforts toward housing preservation and development to ensure they are not contributing to the loss of existing affordable housing stock. Similarly, immediate action should be taken to expedite the launch of HART, including implementation of the Renovictions By-law and more effective monitoring and reporting on the Rental Demolition and Conversion By-law.

Year-Over-Year Comparison

While gaps remain in the 2024 City of Toronto Budget, it is worth examining some of its key housing-related commitments in relation to previous budgets, considering the significant shifts in approach toward taxation and spending.

	2023	2024	YoY $	YoY %
MTH	+$3.5 million1	+$2 million2	-$1.5 million	-43%
MURA	No new $	+$41 million	+$41 million	+100%
EPIC	+$1.1 million	+0.9 million	-$0.2 million	-18%
Toronto Rent Bank	+$1 million	+$1 million	No change	No change
TTSP	No new $	+$0.3 million	+$0.3 million	+100%
RentSafeTO	+$0.9 million	+$0.9 million	No change	No change
Residential tax rate increase3 Multi-res. tax rate increase4	7% 4.25%	9.5% 3.5%	–	+2.5% -0.75%

The 2024 budget marks a significant increase in housing-related investments compared to the previous year, with the additional $41 million for MURA comprising the vast majority of new and enhanced housing-related funding. While the 2024 budget also invests more toward TTSP, interestingly, there was a decrease in overall new spending for the MTH framework and EPIC, while new funding levels remained the same for RentSafeTO and Toronto Rent Bank compared to 2023, as noted above. Moreover, all MTH funding to date has been dedicated toward planning, licensing, enforcement, renovations, and repairs, with no funding allotted for renters. 

Little progress was made in the 2024 budget to advance the launch of HART and implement the Renovictions By-law, following the introduction of those initiatives in the 2023 budget, aimed at supporting renters who have been evicted or are at risk of eviction. However, the residential tax rate continued to increase in the 2024 budget to adequately fund urgently needed city programs and services, while the multi-residential rate decreased compared to the 2023 budget, with a particular focus on protecting renters from AGIs. 

Considering the concerning rate of affordable housing loss across the city, it is encouraging to see the 2024 budget prioritize the preservation of existing affordable housing through partnerships with the non-profit and Indigenous housing sectors. However, to meaningfully advance the right to housing and define itself in contrast to the previous administration, the new administration under Mayor Chow must also ensure that adequate supports are in place to keep renters housed affordably and sustainably. 

On February 15, the City of Toronto passed its 2023 budget. The Right to Housing Toronto (R2HTO) submitted our recommendations to the Budget Committee in January, emphasizing the need for the City to take a rights-based approach by ensuring a participatory process, and that the maximum of available resources are being made available, prioritizing those who need it the most. 

Here are some of the positives and negatives of what has been committed to this year in the budget.  

• First, we are disappointed that the budget process did not take a rights-based approach. Funds were allocated to various programs, and then the leftover funds were used to fund critical initiatives in the city to house people. A rights-based approach would have prioritized the needs of those most impacted by the affordable and adequate housing crisis, and allocated the maximum available resources for initiatives that can house all Torontonians.  
   
• Councillor Carroll’s proposal to allocate $800K to open an additional 24/7 warming centre until April 15 passed. Currently, with no 24/7 warming centres, this is a positive step that will support 50 people for 2-months. However, Councillor Bravo’s proposal to allocate $900K for 24/7 warming centres that would be provided in partnership with non-profit community partners did not pass. One 24/7 warming centre for 2-months is not enough to meet the needs of unhoused people.  
   
• Councillor Carroll’s proposal to expand the proposed budget of $6.2 million for the Rent Bank by $1 million passed, which will help more tenants to pay their rent arrears and stabilize their housing passed.  
   
• RentSafeTO will have $848K to hire 8 new full-time staff thanks to Councillor Matlow’s motion.  
   
• Budget commitments will also support Housing Secretariat’s office to develop a renovictions bylaw, increase the supply of affordable & supportive housing for Indigenous and Black communities, and more. However, proposal by Councillor Matlow to expand the Tenant Support Program to support the growing number of tenants dealing with renovictions failed.  
   
• Budget commitments for ML&S department will also support the implementation of multi-tenant houses licensing program and the enforcement of short-term rentals.   
   
• Toronto also approved $882K to allocate to establishing the Housing Commissioner role with the Ombudsman’s office.  
   
• The budget also commits funds to support the City Planning department in the creation of new housing under the EHON program and other revitalization projects.