rfmcdonald | [URBAN NOTE] "Toronto’s landlord licensing plan faces its first test as tenants rally behind it" (Reply)

The Toronto Star's Laurie Monsebraaten writes about the new landlord licensing agency being proposed for Toronto. For some people--very happily not me--this may be a saviour.

A proposed landlord licensing system for Toronto apartment buildings faces its first test this week as councillors consider giving city inspectors more tools to ensure tenants have a “safe, secure and decent place to live.”

“There is a common belief in some political circles that tenants don’t vote,” said Councillor Josh Matlow, who has been pushing the idea as chair of the city’s tenant issues subcommittee.

“I believe this is tenants’ opportunity to demonstrate that they are a power to be reckoned with,” he said. “This is an opportunity to do something substantive, something real, that will help the city protect their well-being, their health, their safety and their quality of life in the buildings where they live.”

Tenant activists say they will be pressing councillors to support the move.

“We are very pleased this is coming forward,” said Scarborough resident Marva Burnett, Canadian president of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) which represents about 80,000 low-income residents across the country, including about 25,000 in Toronto.

“We have been working on this for 12 years and we will continue to fight until we get it,” she said.