Singh backs federal support for municipal anti-renoviction bylaws during London, Ont., visit

With many long-term renters paying below-market prices facing pressure by landlords to move, Canada's NDP leader says he would support providing municipalities with more federal funding to be used to create bylaws preventing renovictions.

Jagmeet Singh made the comments on Thursday while visiting a rundown, two-storey building in London, Ont., where residents have been offered money to leave by owners who purchased the property in early 2023. 

At first, the owners began to renovate some of the suites at 435 Nelson St., but they now say they plan to have the 23-unit building demolished and redeveloped into a multi-storey apartment building. 

Generally, a renoviction is when when a landlord evicts a tenant by saying they will complete major renovations.

In the case of 435 Nelson, it's unclear where the demolition plan would leave the building's long-term tenants. Many pay rents below market value and say they can't afford to put out more.

Singh said regardless of the owners' plans for the building, stronger protections for tenants need to be in place. 

"We will always see big corporations try to come in and kick out existing tenants," he said. "And if they can do that, we're going to have a constant problem where people are losing affordable homes. We've got to stem that loss of affordability."

London working on bylaw curbing renovictions

Jeff Blake, a long-term resident of 435 Nelson, turned down a cash offer to leave, citing the difficulty in finding anything that makes money sense.

"Whether they want to demolish it or kick us out to renovate it, it's still 23 more affordable units that are going to be lost in London during a housing crisis.

"It's very difficult to find anything remotely affordable these days."

London staff and city council have started work on drafting a bylaw to curb renovictions.

While Ontario laws give tenants the right to return to their units after renovations are complete, groups that advocate for renters say it often results in long-term tenants being ousted in favour of a new tenant who will pay more. 

Although it's still in draft form, London's bylaw would require landlords to apply for a licence from the city before any reno work begins. The licensing process would verify the reno work is extensive enough to require the tenant to leave while the work is done. City staff are also looking at rules that would require a landlord to find displaced tenants another residence while the work is carried out.

Representatives of ACORN, a tenants advocacy group, attended Singh's announcement. They'd also like to see a portion of the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) go toward tenant protection.

London became the first city to tap into the HAF, after it was willing to amend zoning rules to allow more units to be built on lots that would otherwise only allow single-family homes.

Group calls for resources to protect tenants

A London city staff report looking into a possible renovation bylaw estimates it will cost about $600,000 a year in staff and administration costs to operate. 

Jordan Smith of ACORN said governments at all levels need to put more resources into protecting tenants from losing their homes simply because they're paying below-market value. 

He also said building more units isn't a complete solution to the housing crisis, because there's no incentive for landlords to offer new units at below-market rates.

"Every one of these units that they're set to demovict [a demolition-driven eviction] is affordable now, but when they rebuild, they're not going to build affordable units," said Smith. "There's no incentive to build affordable units."