Planning committee considers anti-renewal bylaw

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Could an anti-renewal bylaw help stem the loss of affordable housing in Ottawa?

That’s a question councilors on the city’s planning and housing committee will address Wednesday when they consider whether to follow the city of Hamilton’s lead in enacting a bylaw to protect tenants from bad faith evictions.

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Hamilton’s charter was approved in January and is the first of its kind in the province. Requires landlords to obtain a permit from the city within seven days of issuing an N13 notice, the eviction notice used if the building is to be demolished or is undergoing extensive renovations that cannot be done while the tenant lives there.

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Tenants’ rights groups like Ottawa Acorn, which held a rally outside city hall on Tuesday, say landlords have abused the process, issuing bad faith eviction notices for renovations that never happen or to raise rents when you move out. a new tenant.

Certainly the Somerset Ward motion. Ariel Troster just needs to direct city staff to study Hamilton’s bylaw to see if it might work here.

“TThe best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening,” Troster wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday in the Ottawa Citizen.

Landlords, however, say Hamilton’s bylaw duplicates laws the province has already put in place to protect tenants and adds another layer of bureaucracy for building owners.

“We are concerned. The industry needs less bureaucracy, not more bureaucracy,” said John Dickie, president of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization.

Dickie says the province already requires an order from the Landlord and Tenant Board before a tenant can be evicted. According to the watchdog, Courts Watch Ontario, the LTB already has a backlog of 53,000 cases, meaning it can take a year or more for an appeal to be heard.

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“It’s already burdensome for property owners to get that vacant possession to do the necessary work without the city imposing additional rules,” Dickie said.

Troster says the city has to do something to stem the loss of affordable housing units. A 2023 study by Professor Steve of Carleton University Pomeroyprincipal investigator of the Center for Urban Research and Education, showed that for each new affordable housing unit built in Ottawa, that is, a room or apartment available for $1,000 a month or less, are being lost due to increased rents, renovations or demolition.

Troster said the number of N13 eviction notices issued in Ottawa tripled between 2021 and 2022.

“The tremendous loss of moderately priced apartments is really what we are trying to address with this series of political motions,” Troster said, citing a separate motion from Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stephanie Plante for the city to establish an affordable housing acquisition fund.

“The idea is to reverse that trend. We’re not talking about a $300 a month apartment. Maybe it’s a $1,200 apartment instead of a $3,000 apartment. “It’s the kind of apartment a working-class person could afford,” she said.

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The lack of affordable housing is forcing many people, even some with full-time jobs, to turn to the city’s emergency shelter system.

“Some homeowners came up and said, ‘It’s my property.’ I can charge whatever I want.’ But as a city we are going to have to take stock of our housing stock; Otherwise we will see a massive extension of our accommodation system beyond what we have now,” he said. “It is simply unacceptable that people who have full-time jobs cannot pay their rent. “Something has to give.”

If approved by the planning and housing committee, Troster’s motion would still have to be voted on by the full city council.

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