City of Ottawa to study Hamilton anti-renoviction bylaw

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Ottawa will look to the City of Hamilton for guidance as it contemplates whether an anti-renoviction bylaw can protect tenants rights and slow the rapid loss of affordable housing in the city.

Councillors on the planning and housing committee voted unanimously Wednesday to support a motion from Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster for city staff to study the new Steeltown bylaw that will compel landlords to obtain a licence from the city within seven days of issuing an N13 reviction notice to tenants. An N13 notice is issued if the building is to be demolished or is undergoing extensive renovations that can’t be done while a tenant is living there.

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Troster said she was “thrilled” with the committee’s decision.

“What I heard loud and clear from the planning and housing committee is we have a really strong commitment to protect tenants’ rights and we have a really strong commitment to do what we can to stop the loss of affordable housing,” Troster told reporters.

Tenants and tenants’ rights groups such as Ottawa Acorn say unscrupulous landlords have abused the N13 process, issuing notices in bad faith to intimidate tenants into leaving for renovations that never get done or to simply bring in new tenants at a much higher rent.

Troster’s motion prompted 17 delegations to the committee from tenants with Ottawa Acorn, the Carleton University Students’ Association and the Ottawa Mission, who argued an anti-renoviction bylaw is desperately needed.

On the other side were investors and landlord advocacy groups who say such a bylaw would add more bureaucracy and slow the construction or renovation of existing rental properties.

“The industry needs less red tape, not more red tape,” said John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization.

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Dickie, and others, said new provincial legislation and the proposed federal tenants’ bill of rights will both protect tenants and pointed out that no eviction can occur without the approval of Ontario’s Landlord and Tenants Board.

But Clara Freire, general manager of community and social services for the city, said there are “gaps” in the system that leave tenants vulnerable and have contributed to the loss of affordable housing.

“What we’ve seen is it’s not one thing. There is the lack of rent control and other changes in provincial policy that have promoted rental construction, which is positive, but have left tenants in a bit of a lurch,” Freire said.

Rising rents and general inflation have left tenants “having to make the decision about whether they’re going to pay the rent or whether they’re going to eat today,” she said.

Aileen Leo of the Ottawa Mission told of one person who had gone through programs at the Mission, found work and got themselves set up in an apartment, only to be renovicted.

“They had, quite literally, the rug pulled out from under them,” she told the committee.

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A 2023 study by Carleton University Prof. Steve Pomeroy, senior research fellow for the Centre for Urban Research and Education, showed that for every new unit of affordable housing built in Ottawa — that is a room or apartment available for $1,000 a month or less —  31 are being lost due to rising rents, renovations or demolition.

Troster said the number of N13 eviction notices issued in Ottawa has tripled between 2021 and 2022 and is up 545 per cent in the past three years.

She acknowledged that new federal and provincial rules may offer some protection to tenants, but said it isn’t enough.

“Provincial legislation is insufficient. A lot of tenants are really intimidated into leaving their apartments. They just don’t necessarily know their rights,” Troster said. “They might have the right to return but they don’t have the ability to pay their moving costs or stay in a much more expensive accommodation in the meantime. Where there’s a policy gap, we have the opportunity as a city to make a difference.”

The committee motion, which still must be approved by city council as a whole, directs staff to study the Hamilton bylaw and consider the proposed federal and provincial safeguards to see if an anti-renoviction bylaw is feasible and needed in Ottawa.

Staff are expected to report back to the committee in the fall. But judging the effectiveness of the Hamilton bylaw won’t be easy. The bylaw was passed by Hamilton council in January, but won’t take effect until 2025.

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