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Thursday, October 1, 2020

Toronto tenants and advocates occupy rental office to prevent families from being evicted

Tenants and advocates are occupying the rental office at 215 Markham Rd. in Scarborough today to prevent CAPREIT, Toronto's largest landlord, from evicting working class immigrant families amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Markham and Eglinton Unite and 215 + 225 Tenants Union, CAPREIT Ontario Director Carmen Perez verbally promised renters "no one will be evicted" in these trying times, and then promptly signed off on on at least five N4 eviction notices to tenants in 215 and 225 Markham Rd.

A COVID-19 announcement on the CAPREIT website also states that "No CAPREIT resident will be evicted for not making their monthly rental payment during this crisis."

"CAPREIT told us they will not evict anyone but then they sent out eviction notices just as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed officially," said one of the tenants facing eviction in a statement.

"CAPREIT tells us they care about our families but they will only meet to discuss repayment, not rent relief, even when so many of us are out of jobs and savings. Government assistance is not enough to pay sky-high rents and some of us do not even qualify for benefits like CERB and CRB. They say they care but for decades our buildings have been falling apart and have been infested with pests. Our community deserves a real answer and real relief."

Tenants and advocates began the sit-in at 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning and said they would not leave the office until all eviction notices are withdrawn and tenants are instead offered rent relief.

Nearly two hours into the protest, CARPREIT called the police to try and get demonstrators to leave. When police arrived, tenants attempted to explain the situation.

ontario evictions"Tenants are explaining to police why we are here," Khalood Khan, one of the advocates supporting tenants during the protest, told blogTO. "We are not trying to cause a disturbance. We want to meet with Carmen Perez."

Police then told tenants to leave the office and wait for CARPREIT management in the parking lot.

Tenants and advocates have long been calling on the city to issue a moratorium on residential evictions for the remainder of the pandemic, as the ban issued by the province expired this summer

The city meanwhile maintains that the ability to do so remains under provincial jurisdiction, but city council did approve a motion to call on the province to reinstate the moratorium on residential evictions yesterday.

In the meantime, tenants continue to organize all over the city and remain committed to banding together to prevent Toronto's most vulnerable from losing their homes amid an unprecedented global health crisis.


by Mira Miller via blogTO

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