Tenants in 'nerve-wracking' game with landlords despite Ontario's moratorium on evictions

The executive director of the Sudbury Community Legal Clinic welcomes the Ontario government's pausing of residential evictions amid the pandemic, but says the half-measure doesn't go far enough.

"All that is stopped is that the sheriff cannot enforce eviction orders," Monique Woolnough said about the 30-day pause tied to the province's stay-at-home order, which took effect Thursday.

I do believe the circumstances need to be a lot more serious right now to go ahead with evicting somebody.- Steve Lane, tenant

"That means that people are still having eviction hearings. Eviction orders are still being issued. Many people will continue to move around in the community because 30 days is not that long. The sheriff might be at your door at 31.'

Woolnough noted that between March and August, there was a full stop to most landlord tenant hearings.

Landlords wanting to issue evictions had to convince the landlord tenant board, and then a Superior Court judge, that they're justified.

Woolnaugh said the new measures don't address the ongoing movement of people through the community, which would increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

"They haven't considered at all a comprehensive rent relief program, although they have done that on the small business side," she said. 

"They should be looking at the deeper causes of the affordable housing crisis or increasing social assistance rates, looking at programs like the basic income to address that and having a moratorium that's longer than 30 days."

Steve Lane, a tenant who has come up against illegal eviction orders, said the wait-and-see process has been "nerve wracking.

"I know it's rough on everybody, it's rough on tenants. It's also rough on landlords," Lane said. "But for anybody facing eviction right now, it is a pretty bleak-looking future.

"There's just not much out there, and when there is, a lot of the prices have gone sky high," said Lane, who's in his sixties and is on a fixed income.

Lane said an eviction notice should only be served to a tenant in serious cases.  

"There's circumstances that are governing things to a degree," he said. "But I do believe the circumstances need to be a lot more serious right now to go ahead with evicting somebody."