Yes, we need more housing. But we also need to do better at preventing evictions and protecting renters

This column is an opinion by Mohamad Bsat, a staff lawyer practising at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and founder of the running crew Air Up There. It is part of a special municipal election project by CBC Hamilton, featuring voices from the community. Find all our election coverage here. 

There is a dire eviction crisis happening right here in Hamilton and, after months of municipal campaigning, only a few candidates are talking about it. 

In 2021, according to Statistics Canada, Hamilton had 76,400 household renters.

As a housing lawyer in a legal clinic, I have seen how bad things have gotten for tenants in the past few years. Our office received over 7,000 calls from April 2021 to March 2022 and created over 5,956 service intakes, most of which are calls regarding an individual's tenancy. The demand for tenant support is a raging river.

Most candidates acknowledge there is a runaway housing crisis. Many propose building more homes as a solution. But that's only one of the mechanisms to address this crisis. What isn't being talked enough about is the eviction crisis, which demands a harm-reduction plan. 

Further, what isn't being discussed is the fact the city has a lack of support when it comes to protecting tenants from a market that has commodified housing. Candidates aren't talking about predatory landlords. The lack of rental control. Or the ineffective tribunal system.

Whose responsibility? 

A quick background primer, the provincial government oversees the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) and the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) tribunal. 

The province has a big role to play in addressing this crisis. The province sets out the process for how to assert a tenant's rights and the laws that govern the relationship between a landlord and tenant. 

The rest of it — predatory landlords, tenant supports, access to technology, bylaw inspections, and community supports — is a responsibility shared by the city. 

Candidates need to create programs right here in the city while also simultaneously working to push the province to address the shortcomings of the RTA and the LTB. Notably, the LTB has shifted to a purely digital experience, which has severely hampered a tenant's ability to participate fully in the hearing process; issues with technology, navigating Zoom and their inadequate portal system. 

We might be able to build 50,000 homes in Hamilton — as at least one municipal candidate has proposed — but what support and funding is there for a tenant trying to push back against a predatory landlord? What exists to keep a tenant housed?

From my experience, I'm asking candidates to put themselves in the shoes of a tenant, to understand the number of ways the system is not working for them. 

Put yourself in a renter's shoes

Have you tried attending or even navigating a digital-only hearing without access to a computer or reliable internet? This often falls on our library spaces and the employees aren't paid to navigate a tribunal process alongside a tenant on the brink of experiencing homelessness. 

Do you know how long it takes to have a tenant application heard at the LTB? This process could take months and maybe even a year, and there aren't many supports to help you while you wait. 

Have you tried asking municipal bylaw services to come to your home for an inspection? The department is largely ineffective and slow, let alone able to be an effective mechanism against slumlords. 

Where do you go in the community if you need help filing an application against your landlord? A few volunteer community groups used to take that work on, but mutual aid work has its limits and often you need the eyes of a legal representative. There is only so much a legal clinic can do without effective resources.

The city did create a tenant defence fund pilot but it is limited to renovictions and rent increases that exceed the provincial guideline. The fund is also limited to $50,000 for the entire city for the year. In litigation, that isn't much. Once it's depleted, that's it.

Do you know how many N13s (an eviction notice for renovations or demolition) are served to tenants each year? It's significant. 

The city does not have a harm-reduction model in place to address the eviction crisis. With a lack of rent control for most newly built units, it is vital that mechanisms are in place to preserve a tenant's tenancy. Programs like the Good Shepherd's rapid rehousing program and the Hamilton Alliance Tiny Shelters (HATS) exist in the community — though HATS is just getting off the ground — but they are limited in their scope and are only there once you have lost your home. 

As Toronto-based health policy researcher Ahmed Ali has pointed out, charity will never solve a problem that should have been addressed by public policy.

Candidates have to develop a complex and robust harm-reduction model to keep people housed, which means investing significant dollars to create true support for tenants in Hamilton. Tenants face a massive power balance in their relationships with landlords, especially through financial resources. For the most part — though there are of course exceptions — tenants have done nothing to warrant eviction other than that their rent is too low for a landlord to make a profit.

We need more support for tenants, from bylaw inspections to digital access, and more. The current $50,000 to support tenants in the face of one of the worst eviction crises the city has ever seen is shallow.