Domicide 005: The Myth of Rent Control

Domicide is a Toronto Compass original series of news stories and documentaries. Domicide is the murder of housing as a shelter and right. Instead, housing has been reborn as a financial asset, an investment for the rich to get richer at the cost of safety, dignity, and a human right.

'Rent Control' bans rent increases above 2.5% per year by a landlord in Ontario. This was created to protect tenants, and supposedly, it should work on paper. However, on paper and in practice, despite what many people at city hall, Queens Park, and Parliament seem to think, are not the same. To call the system we have now "rent control" is a lie as it falls short of protecting many tenants.

Rent Control... but not for you.

Firstly, to appease billion-dollar developers and landlord groups from throwing tantrums, the call was made to exclude buildings made after 2018 from so-called rent control. Have you been to any of Ontario's dense population cores? North York Centre, Steeles and Young, Downtown Toronto, Square One, Downtown Ottawa, etc. Did you notice anything? Most of the density in these areas, some of the most populous in Ontario, is post-2018. If building housing, as these developers and landlords claim, actually solves the housing crises, it sure as hell won't help tenants if we don't include new constructions when it comes to rent control. We can keep building housing, but if we don't protect those moving into it, it serves little purpose to house. Given the fact that we build housing for investment rather than shelter, these buildings are doing a great job at that.

True rent control covers all tenants in old, new, and future buildings.

Rent Control... but here's a rent increase anyway.

A lesser-understood flaw of the current rent control is the 2.5% increase that is allowed. Argued by landlords as a needed allowance otherwise, they'll go broke, this is not true. Justified further by citing inflation, this claim is blatant hypocrisy. Firstly, landlords won't go broke from getting rid of this increase. The truth is, the vast majority of landlords are not 'mom and pop' style landlords reliant on slight increases to not default on payments; rather, the majority (60%-90%+ depending on the source) are multiple property-owning elites and corporations, raking in millions from selling and leasing homes. This is paired with the fact that rent is often well above the mortgage and property taxes of a home, and landlords do not need that 2.5% to stay afloat.

Regarding inflation, salaries are not adjusted for inflation. The minimum wage has never kept up with inflation, and the vast majority of Canadians, especially renters, are falling behind. Why, then, is only occupation given this sympathy regarding income adjusting for inflation one of the richest occupations in the nation? Landlord's wealth comes not from selling a good or service but from simply waiting until the 1st of each month and taking others' hard-earned money. If salaries were adjusted for inflation, this 2.5% would be fair, but they aren't.

Rent Control... unless your landlord feels like increasing your rent.

The last of the 3 major flaws of Ontario's so-called 'rent control' is AGI's. "Above guideline increase(s)." It is a very legal and very easy way for landlords to go above the aforementioned 2.5%. If a landlord renovates and improves a unit/building in a way that they can argue justifies needing an increase in rent, they get to! If a tenant challenges this, it goes to the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) and takes an average of multiple years to settle, a time during which the tenants are made to pay the increases. If the LTB does side with the tenant, the money paid as part of the increase is returned to the tenant, but out of working and middle-class tenants compared to millionaire landlords, who can afford the price difference for those years? Why does this befall the tenants? If a tenant withholds the increase and still pays the regular rent, they face eviction, as the residents of several Toronto buildings on Rent Strike recently found out. Often the tenants drop the challenge due to the time, energy, and sometimes financial commitment to fight a landlord in the LTB.

Perhaps the most ridiculous flaw with AGIs is the examples of work landlords deem justifiable for a rent increase. I met tenants of 1440-1442 Lawrence East, whose building is so unsafe that Canada Post will not deliver there, yet their landlord (Barney River) handed them an AGI of 9%. Other cases include landlords using 'painting walls,' replacing appliances against the tenant's wishes or making legally required repairs to justify an AGI.

Rent Control is a myth in Ontario. First, it can be avoided with an AGI, second, it already allows increases, and third, a large proportion of renters do not deserve it for an arbitrary reason decided by a government with deep suspicious ties to developers and landlords.

When we allow housing to become a hyper-financialized vessel for investment and remove it from its status as a human right, we pass laws and bills not for the living, breathing human beings of this nation but for the inanimated bank accounts of the rich. This is Domicide.