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Hamilton housing advocates fighting for renters over ‘renovictions’

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Renovictions, also known as an N-13 is when a landlord evicts a tenant by claiming they will demolish the rental unit, complete renovations, or convert it to another use. Housing advocates say they are happening at an alarming rate in Hamilton.

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Darlene Wesley, 65, who lived at 309 Strathearne Avenue for 18 years, says she and her neighbours in the building were served N-13 notices by her landlord in Nov. 2020 for what she claims were unnecessary renovations. When given the opportunity to return the rent had more than doubled.

Wesley says, “He [landlord] went from $720, which was that I was paying and I was paying the most, to $1,650, is what he’s getting now.” Wesley was one of the dozens who turned out at city hall on Thursday ahead of an emergency and community services committee meeting to call on the city to do more to protect renters.

According to a report by ACORN Hamilton, a housing advocacy group, there were 103 N-13s filed with the landlord and tenant board in 2022. Which is an increase from 60 in 2021. Just six were filed in 2012.

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ACORN first went to city council in 2020 calling on the city to take action on the issue of renovictions specifically a bylaw preventing the practice and annual inspections of apartments to ensure compliance with property standards. After being directed to develop a strategy, a report before council Thursday afternoon called on the city to provide an additional $50,000 to a Tenant Defence Fund.

Ward 2 councillor Cameron Krotesh, who sits on the committee says that doesn’t go far enough, “I think we’re on the way there, but we’re not where we need to be yet. We need to find a way to make this happen, sure, there are going to be some risks, and we have to consider those risks. But the greater risk to people’s life and livelihood and their ability to have safe and affordable homes is more important.”

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Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath was attending the Big City Mayor conference in Kitchener Thursday afternoon and acknowledged the importance of property standards being maintained to protect affordable housing in the city.

Horwath says, “When a unit gets to such a place of disrepair, that it requires a tenant to vacate in order to fix up the unit, then we have issues we have to resolve I think around property standards for example. Are we doing enough to make sure that residential housing units are being maintained over time?”

More to come from the committee meeting Thursday evening.