Toronto’s Planning and Housing Committee is calling for more forceful criminal investigation and prosecution of rental housing landlords engaging in fraudulent evictions or chronic neglect of property standards. Toronto Council will consider whether the City should play a role in collecting evidence when it meets next week.
This comes after Councillor Josh Matlow’s motion to expand the agenda of the RentSafeTO program earned Planning and Housing Committee’s endorsement earlier this month. That motion, which has now been forwarded to the full City Council, recommends that the city look at ways to leverage RentSafeTO’s repository of information to help tenants pursue justice for violations of their legal rights.
In making his argument, Matlow notes that defrauded tenants are required to pay a filing fee and navigate cumbersome, time-consuming procedures to seek redress, while victims of other types of crime can simply call the police.
“For too long, corporate crime has been treated as an administrative matter. This is particularly evident in how Ontario treats fraud in the residential rental sector,” he asserts in the introduction to his motion. “Corporate crime is crime, and it should be treated as such. This motion seeks to identify opportunities to leverage RentSafe officers to identify and compile evidence of criminal conduct and violations of the Residential Tenancies Act, which can then be pursued by municipal or provincial law enforcement as appropriate.”
Meanwhile, Toronto’s housing rights advisory committee (HRAC) has produced a summary of its efforts during its inaugural term of providing insight for City Council and policy developers. The 12-member council advisory body (CAB) was not appointed until December 2023 so had a later start on its mission. Even so, the HRAC reports it has completed necessary early steps to advance its mandate and build the capacity for future work.
“The City of Toronto has shown leadership by laying a foundation to implement the right to adequate housing. As a part of this foundation, HRAC is nascent, but has already shown potential for impact,” HRAC chair, Elizabeth McIsaac states. “With the benefit of four full years, the next committee can broaden and deepen its impact for Torontonians.”
Thus far, it has moved forward on priority concerns connected to affirming and fostering the right to housing:
- supporting the unhoused and improving options and mechanisms for securing housing;
- supporting housing retention; and
- increasing affordable supply.
It has also offered input to Council and City staff on issues such as:
- improving safety and operations of the shelter system;
- responding to encampments;
- protecting tenants from displacement;
- encouraging equitable access to housing; and
- accountability mechanisms, monitoring frameworks and data analytics to gauge access to housing and support equitable access for disadvantaged groups.
That’s all grounded in the guiding principles encompassed in the acronym, PANEL — shorthand for: participation; accountability; non-discrimination; empowerment; and legality. The committee has also carried out its mandate through smaller working groups that have given it the flexibility to meet with Torontonians outside the formal setting of City Hall, with the aim of broadening its outreach to those who have lived experience of precarious housing.
“Rights-based participation and the prioritization of the people most affected are two foundational human rights principles. The people who are most affected by the housing crisis must be able to participate in the public processes that influence public decision-making and actions on housing,” the HRAC report states.
