A few months after launching a rent register in Quebec, the organization Vivre en ville is exporting its initiative to Ontario, where tenants would see their rent increase by a third each time they move, to the point where some end up on the street. An interesting initiative whose impacts on the rental market will however be limited, experts warn.
In May, Vivre en ville launched a citizen and community initiative rent register in Quebec, in the hope that the Legault government will take up this project to formalize the data found there. On Tuesday, the organization announced that it had extended this project to Ontario, a province even more affected than Quebec by the housing crisis.
“One of the things that doesn’t exist right now in Ontario is conclusive and comprehensive data on the state of the rental market. And what happens is that we always catch crises after the fact,” explains Adam Mongrain, director of housing at Vivre en ville. He granted an interview to Duty ahead of a press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Toronto.
With nearly 5,000 entries at launch, the rent registry aims to help Ontarians “make informed decisions” when the time comes to move. It will thus act “as a brake on inflation,” adds Mr. Mongrain, as long as the population agrees to register their rent there.
Roaming
In anticipation of this announcement, the organization commissioned the Angus Reid Institute, which consulted just over 3,000 Ontario tenants. They mentioned that their rent increases by an average of 34% when they move, which weakens their ability to find housing in the province. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for its part reported a 27.20% increase in the rent of two-bedroom units that changed hands last year.
Moreover, 20% of tenants surveyed by Angus Reid say they have experienced one form or another of homelessness in the past.
These figures “give an undeniable message about the lack of control we have over the state of the rental market,” comments Mr. Mongrain. “Homelessness is a housing issue, entirely. […] As prices increase, we will have more roaming. It’s written in the sky. »
According to a 2020 study by American university researchers, the percentage of people experiencing homelessness “starts to increase rapidly as soon as median rental costs exceed 30% of median income”. With a median rent in Ontario of $1,500, according to Angus Reid, and a median monthly income of $3,450 in 2021, according to Statistics Canada, we see that renters in the province spend on average 43.47% of their income on housing. .
“Other provinces should see Ontario as a warning about what can go wrong when housing stock doesn’t grow with population,” adds Mike Moffatt, founding director of the PLACE Center at the Smart Prosperity Institute, who participated in this Living in the City project.
Peter Tilley, president and CEO of the Ottawa Mission, which houses homeless people in the capital, notes that the proposed rent register will not solve the heart of the problem for his organization: the lack of affordable housing available to accommodate homeless people undergoing social reintegration. “We need more affordable housing to be built, for the three levels of government to come together and act together,” insists Mr. Tilley. The rent register is better than nothing, but there will still be challenges in housing people who come out of shelters. »
A “less biting” effect
If it is identical to the Quebec rent register, the Vivre en ville project may not have the same impact in Ontario, because the legislation in the two provinces is different.
In Quebec, a tenant who moves into accommodation can view on their lease the lowest rent paid in the last 12 months preceding their arrival. A clause that does not exist in rental contracts in Ontario.
Moreover, 18% of tenants surveyed by Angus Reid have not even signed a rental contract. In Ontario, a large part of residential rental is done through sites like Kijiji, Craigslist, or Marketplace, explains Mr. Mongrain, which gives “huge discretion to the landlord.”
Furthermore, even though rent control has existed since 1975 in Ontario, it only applies to units occupied for the first time before November 15, 2018. “And it is easier in Ontario to increase rents. rents for major renovations” than in Quebec, adds Ricardo Tranjan, senior researcher at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives and author of the book The Tenant Class.
In this context, the Living in the City initiative will only have a limited impact on the rental market, warns Mr. Tranjan. “When we talk about impacts, I think it will have a political impact in the sense that it can help mobilize tenants, and that is very interesting. But it will not have an impact on the price of rent necessarily, because to have this type of impact, it will take a similar initiative, but on the part of the government,” estimates the researcher.
The opinion is shared by Adam Mongrain, who warns that the tool could have a “perhaps less biting effect compared to that of Quebec”. This is why he hopes that the Ontario government will join the project, by adopting a regulation that will make it possible to impose the publication of rents, or to disclose them based on tax returns.
“For us, it’s everyone’s business. […] This is not fair for the defense of tenants’ rights. […] We have to find a way to act because everyone’s purchasing power is declining in relation to the price of real estate, and this will continue. There is no natural logic that will make it settle. »
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.