Vistas del Proyecto

Women have become far more vulnerable to abuse and discrimination, now that landlords are emboldened by both the government's direction and the tight housing market. Illegal practices by landlords were frequently reported in the workshops. As one woman told us

"They ask for first and last, plus three months rent as a deposit, and rents are in the thousands for very bad quality houses".

Women in the Tamil community, who have little or no sources of income, said they are forced to pawn their jewelry to cover these demands.

Physical maintenance of both private and publicly owned properties is extremely poor and landlords and building supervisors often ignore requests for critical repairs.

Women told of living in clusters of poverty in old and deteriorating

buildings that are infested with mice and cockroaches.Elevators

are often broken and hallways and laundry rooms filthy. One recently arrived woman said the housing conditions here in Toronto are "ten times worse than in China."

As a Somali community advocate told us, when owners and managers realize that the ethno-racial community they rent to has few options, rents go up and maintenance of the units goes down. In the Dixon and Kipling area, where there is a large Somali community, people are paying high prices for units that are rarely repaired. They have trouble renting in higher quality buildings nearby because of landlord discrimination. They are also stuck because many seniors in the community need to live close to each other for a basic level of social

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to get around - especially in winter. In any case, the community does not believe in putting seniors in homes.

Discrimination is a much bigger part of the problem than most people realize. While acknowledging that the low supply of rental housing is a big factor in Toronto, one legal worker pointed to the systemic barriers that women face:

"if you're a newcomer to Canada and you're a single mum, the chances of you getting an apartment are so slim given that there is racism, given that there's discrimination against people in receipt of social assistance, given that landlords request things like a credit history in Canada".

Front line workers say there is ample evidence to show a systematic pattern of discrimination against racialized people, low-income people, women with children and recent immigrants. The Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA) has done some tests on racial discrimination with the North York Housing Help Centre. The Help centre refers people of colour to vacant apartments. If they are told the place is rented when they arrive, a white person is sent out and suddenly the apartment is available again. This is not just in a handful of cases but in many situations. CERA's experience is that this happens everywhere.

For women who are tenants, the conversion of rental housing into

condominiums poses another threat - forcing women out of their homes with no

alternative housing in place. In Parkdale a number of the bachelorettes that house low- income women, psychiatric survivors, and

other vulnerable people are being torn down to make way for the development of expensive, privately-owned units aimed at upper-middle income earners. As one neighbourhood advocate said "it's hard to know where people go - it's likely they become homeless".

Housing

♦ There is a shortage of affordable rental housing in Toronto, with

rents increasing an average of about 30 per cent since 1998.

♦ More than 60,000 households are on the official waiting list for social housing – a number that understates actual need since many people decide not to go to the trouble to get on such a long list.

♦ Meanwhile, only 1,000 below- market rental apartments are in development in the city since the 1999 task force report on homelessness recommended a minimum of 2,000 additional such units were needed in the city every year.

♦ The quality of the existing public and private apartment buildings is deteriorating because they are getting old and not enough money has been spent to maintain good standards. At the same time, the city cut as many as 40 building inspectors since

amalgamation. During 2003, the city plans to hire back 18 inspectors.

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In some areas of the city centre, women feel they are being pushed out to the suburbs to find affordable housing, which further reduces their mobility, and worsens their already limited access to

services.

Among those who do manage to keep their units, many are marginally housed. Outreach workers say some women are forced to live without working heat in their units throughout the winter. Legal avenues are narrow and often backfire on residents. In North York's Chalkfarm area, residents went to the Rental Housing Tribunal to fight a 7% rent increase, and only managed to get it reduced to 6.8% because the Tribunal allowed the landlord to charge tenants for landscaping and fire escape upgrades. Rulings like these make residents almost afraid of renovations or physical improvements to their buildings.