How I ended up on a rent strike

by Sharlene Henry

Advocating for tenant rights has become my passion! Who knew that this work would lead to the biggest rent strike in the history of the city of Toronto (Frame, 2023). I have become one of the voices and faces of the right to affordable and appropriate housing for the many tenants who are members of the York South-Weston Tenant Union (YSWTU). Maybe I need to roll it back and start at the beginning and explain to everyone why I firmly believe that housing is a human right.

My name is Sharlene Henry, and I am Co-Chair of the York South-Weston Tenant Union. YSWTU is a grassroots organization that advocates for tenant rights in the neighbourhood of York South-Weston in the city of Toronto. We started educating tenants on their rights back in 2017 and formally became a Tenant Union in February 2020 when we had our first Annual General Meeting. YSWTU currently has 14 buildings as members of the union. Each building has a Tenant Leader and a Tenant Association. While working on founding the YSWTU we knew we wanted to create an organization similar to a labour union. An organization for the people of our ward who were renters/tenants. Our goal was to empower tenants to advocate for their rights and to fight for tenant power through collective action and education. At the core of our movement, we were determined to have folks understand that with collective power we can make changes to our circumstances and neighbourhood.

Over the first few years we have focused on education and collective action. We fought back against Above Guideline Increases (AGIs), we teach tenants about their rights including the right to a unit that is clean, free of repairs, with working amenities, and free from infestations of a wide variety of bugs and creatures. We also focus on creating a community within a community, having Tenant Association meetings to discuss what is happening in the specific building, preventing evictions of many tenants from their homes, and celebrating our wins with block parties and events like movie nights at our Community Office on Eglinton Avenue West in Toronto. Organizing as a collective led to us take many actions. We signed petitions, held rallies all over our neighbourhood, and tried to meet with our elected officials at all levels of government. Like neighbourhoods all over this country, we are seeing the effect of the lack of tenant education in our neighbourhood and this has led to many of our renters/tenants living in sub-par conditions.

In all honesty, the overwhelming amount of AGI applications in my building at 33 King Street led to us currently being on a rent strike that has lasted for over a year. The majority of tenants in our 30-storey high rise building know what an AGI is; they have been a part of our lives for so many years. An AGI is when a landlord applies for a rent increase above the maximum rent increase percentage that the Ontario government allows each year. For 2024 the rent increase guideline is 2.5%. AGI applications are submitted for capital repairs done on the building during the year that the application is for (“What Is An Above Guideline Increase?” 2023). To complicate things even more the allowable rent increase that the Ontario government sets yearly does not apply to buildings built or occupied after November 15th, 2018. The Ford government took away rent control once they came into office and new builds have no rent control. The building I live in is not under this change and is supposedly “rent controlled.” But on the flip side, our building has seen the most AGIs in the city of Toronto. In 2022 we took part in a banner action and hung “Stop Raising Rent” signs on our balconies. We hung the signs to gain the attention of our landlord and our community. This caught the eye of CBC News, and I was featured in an article and interview called “‘Explosion’ of above guideline rent increases pricing out some Toronto tenants, advocates say” (2022) by Nicole Brockbank. The article highlighted that 33 King Street had been subject to numerous AGI applications in the past 10 years. With a total of 6 AGI applications brought before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) in a decade, as tenants we felt confused and quite frustrated. The article detailed how tenants across the city were going through similar challenges with AGIs and neglectful landlords. The pot was stirring and folks were definitely feeling the effects of having their monthly rent go up by an average of $40 to $70 each year versus the allowable Ontario increase. On average tenants were seeing rent increases of about $150 to $200 after the approval of the AGIs.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the YSWTU continued to grow in our neighbourhood as we kept connecting with more tenants across several of our buildings who were going through the exact same thing. They continue to experience AGI notices every year, renovations that seem useless, and a loss of services like elevators not running. Landlords issue threatening notices to tenants who, thanks to the work of tenant unions, fully understand the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) 2006 who in turn respond by withholding the AGI increases until the Landlord and Tenant Board case is heard and an adjudicator finalizes an order for the increase amount that is approved. The RTA states that the yearly increases cannot exceed 3%. But our experience has proven that many applications are often well beyond the 3% maximum and sometimes spread over 2 or 3 years. Some tenants face confusion and need to be educated about how this process works so they understand that the RTA often supports what landlords are doing when they file for an AGI. Unfortunately, this process took years for the hundreds of residents affected by the notices at 33 King Street where I live with my family. Our case against the 2018 AGI was scheduled to be heard at the Landlord Tenant Board in the summer of 2022. We put pressure on our landlord, Dream Unlimited, for months before the hearing date and we collectively won a decrease in the total amount of the AGI application.
With ongoing frustration and the lack of transparency to tenants who should have been awarded money back due to the 2018 AGI victory, the majority of tenants at 33 King Street grew more and more frustrated. Some folks who paid into the AGI increase of 2018 did not receive a credit for the AGI victory which then led us to the idea of possibly going on a rent strike. This idea and concept were not new to us, and we had discussed it in the past at meetings but felt it was not the time to proceed with this bold tactic. This feeling changed dramatically in early 2023 when Dream Unlimited refused to have a negotiation with us regarding the pending AGIs for 2019 and 2021.

Our rent strike at 33 King Street started officially on June 1, 2023, with 200 tenants withholding their rent from our landlord. The goal was to get Dream Unlimited to negotiate with us as a collective and tenant union. Our demands were; a commitment to no more AGIs, rent abatement for the loss of our balconies and amenities (over 18 months of construction), and the removal of the pending AGI applications for 2019 and 2021. Yes, you are reading correctly, 33 King Street was hit with an AGI rent increase during the Covid-19 pandemic. The same year where the Ford government set the Ontario increase 0%. AGIs are a loophole and Dream Unlimited was allowed to hit us with a 3% increase during 2021.

On July 1, 2023 our sister building at 22 John Street joined the rent strike and 100 tenants withheld their rent. They are a new building and have no rent control. Residents at 22 John Street have seen rent increases as high as 10% year over year. With rental costs being so high in the province imagine a rent increase of 10% when we do not even get a pay increase each year. Momentum was growing and folks across the city started taking notice of our collective actions. We continued to have rallies, to canvass our buildings weekly, and to speak with the media about what we were fighting for. Ultimately the movement grew by leaps and bounds thanks to the attention on social media, collaborations with community groups across the city, as well as through news channels, podcasts, and talk radio running stories about this movement for decent housing.

Unions joined our movement early on. The support of labour unions has been instrumental in our success and in getting the message of why we are on a rent strike out to the masses. The support of union allies has been astronomical and has helped create understanding. This support shows that when we come together collectively, educate members and the public, together we can achieve amazing results. Keeping the rent strike going takes many folks coming together to support the efforts of the YSWTU. Unions helped keep the momentum going and with their support we have been able to maintain our presence in our community. We are thankful for the support of our brothers, sisters, and siblings in the labour movement.

On October 1, 2023 two more buildings from the YSWTU joined the rent strike. One hundred tenants at 1440 and 1442 Lawrence Avenue West decided it was time to stop paying rent to their landlord, Barney Rivers Investments. The building has been hit with several AGI applications over years and renters have been dealing with egregious living conditions. The long-time tenants have major issues in the units including holes in the ceiling, leaking throughout the units, infestations of rats, bed bugs, and cockroaches, and a lack of repairs in the common areas. These conditions had been happening over years and the Tenant Association and YSWTU had tried every method of outreach to gain the attention of the landlord. Barney Rivers never answered calls or petitions from hundreds of residents of these two buildings. Once again, tenants became frustrated and felt the need to take control by making a bold move. The rent strike currently continues as I write this article.

I would like to stress how important this movement is for all renters. We are a large spectrum of people who live in every community across this province and country.

Renters are made up of young families, middle aged folks, new immigrants, retired seniors, and working-class people. Renters come from all walks of life and are an important part of our communities. We vote, pay taxes, shop local, and enjoy our neighbourhoods just as much as homeowners. We have been silent for too long and have the right to fight to change the laws that affect our lives each and everyday.

I am a proud resident of York South-Weston. Our community is unique and known for being a vibrant older part of Toronto. We are home to a wide variety of cultures, races, and ethnicities. I have lived in this area for most of my life, and as an adult my love for this community has grown exponentially.

I am a mother to three amazing young children who love and appreciate everything that is York South-Weston, from the parks and trails to many community events. We love our diverse neighbourhood as much as many other residents do. This journey has taught us all that solidarity and resiliency can take many forms and changes lives in the process.

Because
when
we fight
together,
we win
together!

__________________________________

Sharlene Henry (she/her)
Co-Chair YSWTU

WORKS CITED
Frame, Joshua. “Tenants united against corporate landlords: York South-Weston tenants mount Toronto’s largest rent strike.” Spring: a magazine of social ideas in Action, Nov. 14, 2023, Tenants united against corporate landlords: York South-Weston tenants mount Toronto’s largest rent strike – Spring (springmag.ca)
“What Is An Above Guideline Increase?” Above Guideline Increase (AGI) Tip Sheet. Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, September 2023, https://www.acto.ca/production/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Above-Guideline-Increase-Information-Sheet-for-Ontario-September-2023.pdf.
Brockbank, Nicole. “’Explosion’ of above guideline increases pricing out some Toronto tenants, advocates say.” CBC News, March 14, 2022, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/above-guideline-rent-increases-pricing-out-tenants-1.6381522