Councillor pushing for anti-renoviction bylaw in Ottawa

Coun. Ariel Troster is tired of watching seniors get pushed out of her downtown Ottawa ward by what she calls "bad-faith evictions."

"I represent a ward that has the highest rate of poverty among seniors, and we're seeing, increasingly, our older neighbours fall into homelessness or end up couch-surfing or being unable to live in the neighbourhood they helped build," she said.

In many cases, the representative for Somerset blames "renovictions," where a tenant gets an N-13 notice asking them to move out while a landlord renovates their unit.

Troster said those notices are often being misused. In her view, the repairs are sometimes mere pretexts to get long-standing tenants out of the way in a bid to jack up rents.

They're doing it simply to make the apartment look a little bit nicer so they can rent it for significantly more.- Coun. Ariel Troster

"What we're seeing is a lot of bad-faith evictions, where a landlord might put in a new countertop or give it a fresh coat of paint, call that a renovation that's worthy of an N-13 eviction — and they're doing it simply to make the apartment look a little bit nicer so they can rent it for significantly more," Troster said.

So Troster is asking her council colleagues to look to Hamilton, which passed Ontario's first anti-renoviction bylaw earlier this year.

She said landlords should have to apply for a permit and prove the renovations are really extensive enough to require the tenant to leave.

Provincial law isn't enough, says lawyer

Tenants can already go to a tribunal to argue that point. They're entitled to compensation, and provincial law gives them a right to return to their unit once the renovations are done.

The director of legal services at Community Legal Services of Ottawa said those mechanisms often fall short.

"The provincial law isn't enough to de-incentivize landlords to use it where it shouldn't be used," said Sarah Sproule. "I think it doesn't offer enough to help individual tenants who want to stay in their units or return to their units."

Sproule said few tenants have the knowledge to properly argue their case at the tribunal, and often lack clear timelines for when they can return, which can make it impractical to do so. 

Besides, some landlords offer cash payments to encourage tenants to sign away their rights.

For landlords, it can be well worth the money if it opens the door to new tenants and big rent increases.

"It really falls to the individual tenant to make the case that vacant possession isn't required and that the renovations can be done while they're living there, which can be hard for tenants that don't have contractors at their disposal or people in their corner with construction expertise to speak to that issue," said Sproule.

She said the Hamilton model could give tenants a better chance of understanding and defending their rights. It could also stem the upward pressure on rents by taking the responsibility for fighting misused N-13s off the tenant, and placing the onus on city officials.

"Ideally, it would also mean that a qualified person would be looking at the landlord's plan to renovate and determining whether or not a tenant actually needs to vacate," she said.

That would happen right up front, "rather than waiting for the Landlord and Tenant Board to weigh in, at which point the tenant may have gotten discouraged or scared and given up, and just moved out."

Hamilton model just one tool

The Hamilton bylaw requires landlords to apply for a city licence that costs $715. To get one, they must show building permits are in place and get a report from an engineer confirming the tenant has to move out for the renovation work to take place.

Landlords also need to make arrangements for tenants who want to return after the renovation, including temporary accommodations or compensation. Violations could draw fines of $500 per day.

Troster is asking city staff to study that model and report back. Her motion will come to the city's planning and housing committee for debate April 24.

The city is already planning to study other tools to stem rent increases and prevent renovictions.

The planning and housing committee passed a motion  authored by Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante on Wednesday asking staff to look at a housing acquisition fund or acquisition strategy.

That means purchasing private housing units and converting them into non-profit affordable housing. 

"We really do need a two-pronged approach to the affordable housing conundrum we have here in Ottawa," Plante said.

"One of them is obviously to build more affordable housing, but we are losing more units than we are building, so having a solid acquisition strategy … will help the City of Ottawa keep those units affordable."

The federal government recently announced $1.5 billion in grants and loans for such acquisitions. 

Kaite Burkholder Harris of the Alliance to End Homelessness said the city needs a strategy to help that money flow to Ottawa.

"We can build and build and build, but unless we actually catch up to what we're losing, we're not going to be able to get a handle on the housing crisis," she said.