[URBAN NOTE] "Dangerous – but affordable – fire-trap apartments a risk to Toronto tenants"

[rfmcdonald]

This, described in The Globe and Mail by John Lorinc, is terrifying. Affordable housing, and safe housing, is such a need in this city.

Dingy fire-trap apartments have long existed in every large city, but an inquest this spring in Whitby into the deaths of three young people living in just such a dwelling has raised tough and pressing questions about the risks facing those forced to the margins of a housing sector characterized by crazy real-estate prices, skyrocketing rents, a dearth of affordable units and an influx of low-income residents.

“What we know is that it’s a huge issue and one that politicians avoid,” said Wellesley Institute housing expert Michael Shapcott.

Later this spring, however, Toronto City Council will be vetting staff proposals to broaden the regulation of rooming houses in an effort to bring tens of thousands of illegal units into better compliance with fire, building safety and public-health rules.

It’s going to be a tough slog, simply because of the numbers. No one really knows how many illegal units are hidden across the city.

[. . .]

[S]uch apartments have claimed numerous lives, including the owner of an illegal North York rooming house, who died during a fire last November, and the basement tenant in a Scarborough semi-detached engulfed in late December. In that case, according to media reports, two pets died and another occupant was critically injured.