"I have financial difficulty to find a place to stay which is similar to my current place.  I have low fixed income and receive GIS each month. I cannot afford the market renting cost even if the landlord provides a few months’ rent as moving compensation.  Besides, the new possible landlord will not let me in since I cannot provide a sufficient income proof to them.

"I’m worried for all of what awaits us. Where will I go, it’s so terrifying... I am poor and would never be able to come back here... I feel there must be a lot who feel same…"

" There are many people living in this apartment building who have called this place their home for many years- some for over thirty years. They have developed a community here, an environment where they feel safe, and a neighborhood they adore. Demolishing the apartment building will leave so many people without a feeling of home anymore, and struggling to survive. With the rent prices that they started paying years ago, and how much rent has severely increased, they will not be able to afford anywhere else to live.

A demolition of 145 St George will have me stuck in a very difficult place of not being able to afford rent in Toronto. As a student, finances are tight, and it will be impossible for me to afford more expensive rent than what I am currently paying. In my thorough apartment search three years ago, I was not able to find any apartments that came close to this price in rent."

"145 St. George Street Apartments has provided affordable housing for me and for many other long-term tenants. It would be a disaster to demolish this building, putting so many people out of their homes where they've lived amongst friends and neighbors for so many years."

"It will destroy the fabric of The Annex plus it leaves the door open for other developers to come in and demolish what rental buildings we have left on St. George Street, creating a domino effect. How can the government state that they are worried about affordable housing but let developers destroy what rental housing we have? How does building condos which most people can't afford, but are instead bought by investors then rented out mostly to students who in turn have one or two roommates to share the cost. Length of stay is usually two years. Where does affordable come into place in this scenario?"

"I think it is a extreme measure, that will allow big development corporations to continue gentrifying downtown, as a result a lot of us would end up displaced thanks to the greed of a few! I would be displaced and would be force to relocate further out of downtown because, let's be honest here, the price I would have to pay in rent to live here again, would be astronomical!"

"I moved to 145 St. George in the summer of 1980. I was a young lawyer with a promising future engaged to be married. At that time many original tenants lived here.

Our community has been an important part of my life. Over the years we neighbours planted the trees at the front of the building from seedlings we grew on on our balconies. We tended neglected gardens. We have been together through repeated above guideline rent increases and renovations including the traumatic more than year long balcony demolitions with window replacements that affected our health and quality of life. The Chinese elms we planted on the Prince Arthur boulevard were killed and the flock of birds that roosted in the OISE trees left. Many long term tenants were required to move."