Editor

To increase the housing supply the city allows perfectly good, rent controlled apartment buildings to be torn down and replaced with even taller condo developments. These new buildings, by virtue of being built after Premier Doug Ford’s government changed regulations in 2018, will not be rent controlled.

The residents of 55 Brownlow Avenue are a mix of tenants: many on fixed incomes, all are renters. The tenants of these 121 units will all be displaced by the proposed demolition, or “demoviction,” as campaigners are calling it.

In the Annex, 145 St George Street, a 12-storey building of 130 units built in 1959 is also up for redevelopment. City council also approved the demolition of 25 St Mary Street containing 259 units, a 60s-era building in the Church and Wellesley Village neighbourhood.

https://ricochet.media/en/3962/in-the-midst-of-a-housing-crisis-why-is-toronto-letting-a-rent-controlled-apartment-building-be-demolished

Ontario is losing affordable housing too fast. The housing that is at greatest risk of demoviction is purpose-built rentals, the bulk of which were built in the 1960s and ’70s. It is far easier to protect existing affordable housing than to build new purpose-built rental housing to meet the current demand.

https://www.tvo.org/article/its-time-for-full-rent-control-in-ontario

The city’s policy requires that developers who tear down rental buildings for condos replace the lost units. Applications for such demolitions are on the rise.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/05/10/toronto-makes-developers-replace-demolished-rental-units-the-city-fears-the-province-plans-to-change-that.html