Nation-wide day of action calls on feds to end apartment sales to ‘predatory lenders’: ACORN

A national day of action is calling on the federal government to launch a new acquisitions fund to help non-profits, co-ops, and other groups buy affordable rental buildings instead of corporate landlords.

ACORN Canada is asking Ottawa to help end apartment sales to what it calls “predatory landlords” with a day of rallies held coast-to-coast and here at home.

“Across the country, we are trying to fight back against corporate landlords destroying our affordable housing,” said Maribel Jagorin, a tenant currently facing renoviction at 267 Traynor Ave. in Kitchener where a local rally is also set for 6 p.m. this evening.

Speaking on The Mike Farwell Show, Jagorin said she and others in her building were told they had to clear out shortly after it was bought out by Mike Beer Investments.

“Our building was bought roughly two years ago and, after that, we were experiencing a lot of interruptions in our basic needs like electricity [and] water, and they [also] removed amenities that we [had been] previously enjoying for years before their takeover,” Jagorin said, adding it wasn’t long after that tenants began receiving renoviction notices despite, according to her, those evictions not being necessary to complete the work.

Jagorin said a number of tenants are now challenging those notices at the Landlord and Tenant Board but are still awaiting a hearing date.

She said she has also previously asked her new landlord if she would be allowed to exercise her right to move back into her unit once work was finished.

“I said I want to exercise my ‘right of first refusal’ [but] he didn’t want me to,” she said. “He said no, once you’re out, you can’t come back anymore.”

“I know the strategy,” Jagorin continued. “They just want you out so a new lease can be created for new tenants and they can do whatever they want… like charge double.”

She said that’s since been made clear as there are already some new tenants in the building paying twice what she pays for rent while also having to cover other new expenses for electricity and parking, which had previously been included.

“We are good tenants–that’s why [we’ve been] here for years,” Jagorin said. “It’s just that, unfortunately, we are living in this old building [and] paying affordable rents.”

“But that doesn’t make us less of a human and [allow] you [to] kick us out on the streets,” she said. “I wish that my landlord would treat us with dignity and respect, and see us as humans.”