Housing affordability crisis: Sweeping rent strike in York South-Weston comes to an end after both sides reach settlement
After more than a year of rallies and marches, backroom negotiations and withheld rent payments, a sweeping rent strike near Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West is over — with representatives of the tenant union and landlord each confirming a deal has quietly been reached.
The agreement ends a highly publicized dispute over above-guideline rent increases that erupted last summer between landlord Dream Unlimited and residents of its two neighbouring buildings at 33 King St. and 22 John St. who organized as part of the York South-Weston Tenant Union.
Union founder Chiara Padovani confirmed the 16-month strike had been resolved via an “amicable settlement,” but did not share any details of the final agreement. “We got here because hundreds of tenants organized and took action together. We hope this serves as an example to tenants everywhere of how we’re stronger together,” Padovani wrote in a statement.
The same union has also been involved in a separate strike at 1440 and 1442 Lawrence Ave. W., where tenants raised concern about above-guideline rent hikes by their own landlord, as well as concerns around disrepair and pests.
In an emailed statement on Thursday, Dream spokesperson Krystal Koo also confirmed the rent strike at 33 King and 22 John was over and said it had been “settled amicably,” but declined to reveal any specifics. “All parties have agreed to keep the details of the settlement private,” Koo wrote.
Frustration with rent hikes had been building for several years before Dream purchased the two buildings in 2021. By that time, tenants at 33 King St. had already faced six above-guideline rent increase applications over a 10-year span, in which their former landlord appealed to the Landlord and Tenant Board for special permission to raise costs in the rent-controlled units above the provincially mandated cap.
In appealing for their above-guideline hikes, the former landlord cited reasons from leaks to asbestos. When Dream purchased the properties, some had hoped the unresolved applications would be abandoned. However, Dream president Michael Cooper confirmed to the Star in 2022 that the company would be taking over the ongoing applications to collect higher rents.
This year, the maximum amount a landlord can increase charges on rent-controlled tenants is 2.5 per cent without that special permission.
While Cooper, in 2022, spoke about plans to set aside some units in the two buildings to remain at least 30 per cent below market rate as part of a loan deal with the federal government, Cooper also acknowledged Dream hoped to profit from the rental operations. “We want to make market returns,” he said.
Tenants in the building, meanwhile, have decried a continual erosion of their building’s affordability. The Star previously examined more than 300 units in 33 King occupied in both 2012 and 2021 through records from the above-guideline-increase cases, and found rents increased by an average of 73 per cent — and up to 118 per cent — in units where there was tenant turnover.
In less than a decade, one apartment rose from $1,010 to $2,200 per month.
The strikes at 33 King and 22 John, along with the Lawrence buildings, are among numerous high-profile rent strikes that have played out across Toronto in the last year, with tenants in communities such as Thorncliffe Park also collectively withholding rent payments to protest above-guideline rent hikes.
The Thorncliffe strike is still underway, said Toronto legal clinic worker Cole Webber, with many tenants now facing eviction applications. Looking across Toronto, he believes this kind of organized pushback from tenants is likely to only intensify, as renters are continually squeezed by rising housing costs.
“Tenants are increasingly pushed to the limit and deciding to turn to organizing collectively to try and address evictions and rent increases. I think that we’ll continue to see more of this sort of thing as the crisis deepens.”
This article was first reported by The Star
