Community group tries to keep Kensington buildings out of developers' hands, but needs $3M to do it

A Toronto non-profit corporation is trying to save two properties in Kensington Market to keep rents affordable for current tenants, but it has just one month to raise the $3 million it needs to do it.

The Kensington Market Community Land Trust, a group formed to prevent tenants from being pushed out of their homes and maintain the vibrancy of the mixed-use neighbourhood, has made a $4 million offer to purchase the properties at 27 and 29 Kensington Ave. to safeguard six affordable residential units and two stores.

The land trust says it made the offer out of fear that that the properties might be snatched up by investors who might not care about keeping rents affordable for residents and small businesses.

"It's been a regular trend of landlords and developers buying up these properties that have traditionally been affordable housing and turning them into ghost hotels…apartments that are rented out on Airbnb," said Kevin Barrett, co-chair of the land trust.

Instead, the land trust would let current tenants stay and continue to pay affordable rents.

"We're not trying to extract wealth from the community or from these properties," he said. "We're trying to make sure that people have secure tenure and affordability, where they live and work."

It's a model that has worked for other land trusts in the city before, including this one. Land trusts buy property and tenants wind up paying rents far below market rates for years to come. But making the model work relies on extensive fundraising and financing from individuals, organizations and governments.

Barrett says the land trust says believes it can mortgage finance about $1 million, meaning it needs to raise about $3 million through other means.  

Land trust hopes to replicate past success

The land trust is hoping the city will step up as it did for a past purchase, when it helped the trust buy 54-56 Kensington Ave. with a forgivable loan of $3 million in 2021.

One tenant, Eric Jensen, says that move made all the difference. 

He and his neighbours were about to lose their homes in 2019, after the property was sold to new owners with plans to re-develop it. Jensen says the Kensington Market Community Land Trust coming in to make a purchase turned things around.

"We've been here for a long time. I'm not young anymore," said Jensen. "Now I have security…it's nice to know that my home is going to be affordable for, foreseeably, the rest of my life."

Jensen is semi-retired and on a limited income. He says he has been paying around $850 a month in rent. If he were to lose his apartment, he says he would have to leave the city and pay market rent elsewhere.

"There's a safe feeling when you know your landlord isn't profit-driven to challenge your tenure every year or two," he said. 

Jensen is now sitting on the board of the trust, hoping to give other tenants the same leg up.

More affordable housing units possible

The purchase might also help future tenants find affordable housing.

Chiyi Tam, executive director of the land trust, says the trust can do more than just preserve affordable housing.

"It is possible to do development and involve a neighborhood without displacement," she said. "But first you have to protect the existing tenants and existing small businesses and their leases."

She says the corporation will explore building a laneway house or extending the back of the property to add more units, but all decisions will be made by the community.

Geordie Dent, the executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Association said, "preserving the stock is just as important as adding to it when it comes to people's needs."

He says projects like this are positive, but it would be even better to see such efforts happening on a larger scale and that governments should step up more often to help community land trusts.

"We want to see this mass produced. We want to see groups doing this across the board," he said.

Asked to comment on potential support for the land trust's purchase, the city's Housing Secretariat did not address the two properties specifically.

The Housing Secretariat said in a statement that the city's multi-unit residential acquisition program, which aims to "preserve existing affordable housing stock" and "remove properties from the speculative rental market", has a deadline of May 25.

Last year, that program supported six housing providers to secure 140 rental units for low and moderate-income households. 

Tam says she's confident the community and other partners will come together to help again, but if the money doesn't fall into place somehow, the trust will lose the deal.  

"We don't want to lose this opportunity," she said. "It feels like a once-in-a-generation opportunity."