Residents of Old Oak Properties apartments have gathered at Victoria Park to protest and raise awareness about the conditions that tenants have been facing at the apartments located on Proudfoot Lane and Adelaide Street North. This is one of the several gatherings happening throughout the week, including a march happening later on Wednesday with the purpose of residents sharing experiences with disrepair, mismanagement, and above guideline rent increases for renovations that didn’t address the disrepair in the buildings.
Photo by Bernardo Lucca
‘’The tenants in these buildings, at Huron and Adelaide, are facing extreme levels of disrepair and neglect,’’ says Jordan Smith, chair of the local chapter of Acorn at Stoneybrook/Carling area.
Tenants have joined ACORN and formed a tenant union in their buildings, demanding several actions to be taken in order to resolve the concerns at the buildings. Some of the main ones include a phone service available for tenants to call in emergencies, a policy for rental increase notices, hire enough maintenance staff, and regular inspections.
‘’There’s an extreme disparity between the way that new tenants are treated, those who have been there a year or less, and more long-standing tenants who have been there for a few years. Those are treated in a way that is absolutely abysmal.’’
Some of the major issues reported by one of the tenants are constant dangerous problems with water and electricity, mold on walls and pest infestations.
‘’When they do come in to finally do the repairs, when we got the city pressure on, they half-finished them and left the walls hanging open.’’
Photo by Bernardo Lucca
Smith says landlords have work orders accumulated for months, and even years.
‘’They’re refusing to take inspection and work orders that the city has sent. It’s a great expense’’.
‘’It’s inhumane. The moment the place you live turns into something like that, your entire life is thrown upside down. It’s your sense of security, your health, your ability to rest and gather strength.’’
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