Item - 2019.PH11.11

The Planning and Housing Committee:

1. Requested the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and the General Manager, Shelter Support and Housing Administration in consultation with the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building and the City Solicitor to report to the Subcommittee on the Protection of Affordable Rental Housing in the first quarter of 2020 on:

a. an approach to coordinate City processes to identify and prevent potential instances of

illegitimate evictions;

b. potential improvements to City programs, policies and processes to address evictions;

c. potential mechanisms and data sources to track and monitor data on N12 and N13

evictions, increases in rents above the provincial rent-increase guidelines, and changes to

the short-term rental stock and any other threats to the current affordable rental housing

stock;

d. the role of the City to support tenants with disputed N12 and N13 evictions; and

e. potential mechanisms for investigating false "renovictions", Landlord's Own Use

evictions, and other similar fraudulent activities conducted by landlords under section 380

(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada, and including the feasibility of requesting the Toronto

Police Service Board investigate.

2. Requested the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and the General Manager, Shelter Support and Housing Administration to establish a 'Protection of Rental Housing Advisory Group' consisting of staff from City divisions, people with lived-experience, tenant advocacy groups, landlords, and legal clinics to provide advice to the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat on affordable rental housing issues that impact tenants.

3. Requested the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration to work with the “Protection of Rental Housing Advisory Group” on the following matters:

a. the development of public educational materials and awareness campaigns, including

but not limited to posting information on tenant's rights and resources available to protect

those rights on apartment building notice boards, providing it to the constituency office

staff of all Toronto City Councillors, Members of Provincial Parliament and Members of

Parliament in the first quarter of 2020;

b. the identification of possible changes to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, to

address illegitimate use of N12 and N13 notices; and

c. the hosting of an affordable rental housing workshop in the first quarter of 2020 to

address the issue of tenant displacement and evictions, including solutions and the role of

the Advisory Group going forward.

4. Requested the Chief Building Officer and Executive Director, Toronto Building to work with other City Divisions and agencies to take immediate steps to support the security of tenure of residential tenants and seek to mitigate the loss of affordable rental housing.

5. Requested the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to report to the Subcommittee on the Protection of Affordable Rental Housing with:

a. A strategy to protect tenants in rental buildings with less than six units in Toronto.

b. A scan of Toronto's stock of rental buildings with less than six units, including, but not

limited to:

1. Number of rental units in buildings under six units

2. Average rent in units in buildings under six units

3. Number of rental units have lost in buildings under six units over the last 10 years

4. Number of tenanted apartments converted to single family homes in the last ten

years.

The Subcommittee on the Protection of Affordable Rental Housing on November 20, 2019 considered the report (November 5, 2019) from the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and the General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration on Promoting the Security of Residential Rental Tenancies.