Some good news — solidarity, courage and organizing can make a difference! The tenants at 103 Emerald St. S. have won their case against an investor-landlord attempting to renovict them.
Some of you will recall hearing Amanda Dick, one of the tenants at 103 Emerald St S. who spoke at our November 15th Tenant Forum about the situation tenants in that building were facing. Later that month, three members of our church demonstrated with the tenants (photo at right) as they continued to resist the attempt of their landlord to evict them from homes some of them had lived in for three, four and even five decades. Recently, the Landlord and Tenant Board rejected the landlord’s eviction application, dismissing his claim that he needed all the tenants out to do renovations. Congratulations to Amanda and the other tenants, and to Olivia O’Connor and the rest of the downtown branch of ACORN, which provided needed organizational support.
However, hundreds of other Hamilton tenants are currently threatened with similar attempts to evict tenants. Ontario law encourages landlords to try to evict longtime tenants because there is no limit on rent increases when there is a change of tenant. As First Unitarian’s Housing Affordability Team moves forward, let’s try to figure out ways to support the efforts by other groups of tenants facing renovictions.