Hundreds of #tenants, struggling to afford skyrocketing rents, are refusing to pay their #landlords at all. They call it a #RentStrike. The landlords say it’s illegal. An inside look at the frontier of a growing #ClassWar
Jason McBride November 9, 2023
"33 King was an inexpensive, aging highrise, but it was a bastion of affordability in a city that seemed to grow more expensive every year. In 2010, the couple moved into a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor that rented for less than $1,000. Two years later they had their first child, Xavier. [Their rent initially was $700 a month. It has more than doubled!]
"Then, in 2013, the landlord, a company called Realstar, informed Henry that her rent was going up that year by 5.5 per cent. She was confused. 33 King was rent-controlled—increases were capped in 2013 at 2.5 per cent. But there was a loophole: in Ontario, landlords can apply for what’s called an above guideline increase, or #AGI, to make major repairs. Realstar fixed the roof and elevators that year, so Henry thought it might be a one-off. When it happened again the next year, with an increase of 3.8 per cent, well above that year’s 0.8 per cent guideline, she and her neighbours were incensed. They’d long talked about deteriorating conditions in the building and regular maintenance that seemed to go undone. Some felt the AGIs were simply a way for #Realstar to boost the value of its asset by squeezing extra money out of its tenants.
"In 2017, Henry started working on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant in nearby Brampton, and became a member of Unifor. It was the first time she’d joined a union, and it was exciting to be part of a group of people banding together to fight for their rights. Energized by that experience, in 2018, she helped form a tenants’ association at 33 King to fight future AGIs. Still, they kept coming—in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
That year, a company called #DreamUnlimited, a #realestate giant with $23 billion worth of assets, bought 33 King. Because the 2019 and 2021 AGIs were still pending approval by Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board, or LTB, Dream inherited the applications. Henry and other tenants wasted no time making their feelings about them known to the new owners. Working with the York South-Weston #TenantUnion, or YSWTU—an umbrella organization for 13 tenants’ associations in the area—they staged protests, called Dream’s president, Michael Cooper, and went to the media in a bid to have the AGIs cancelled.
"The movement hasn’t come without consequences. Dream has initiated eviction proceedings for more than 70 tenants at 33 King, and Starlight has started them for 75 in Thorncliffe Park. More are likely to come, but the strikers have remained resolute, the fear of losing their homes outweighed by the impossibility of continuing the status quo.
"Their fights are just beginning. Tenant #activism is flaring across the country as renters face skyrocketing rents and deteriorating living conditions in the most brutal #housing market in memory. Whatever their outcome, the Toronto rent strikes are the latest, loudest volley in a brewing class war."
Renters fight back against Bellingham, WA slumlords by creating a "Shit Rental Radar Map"
The map combines crowdsourced data from renters with data imported from the Whatcom County Tax Parcel Viewer website.
The map
identifies what city ward a property is located in as well as which City Council member oversees that ward
helps renters find out if their potential new home has mold, inoperable windows, excessively high heat bills, pests, plumbing issues, inoperable smoke detectors, etc.
identifies landlords who have a history of deposit theft or renter hostility and intimidation
Landlords may redeem themselves only through a process of making necessary repairs and a subsequent clean city inspection.
Transient college students make up about 10% of Bellingham's population.
Rental units exceed 50% of Bellingham homes.
20% of Bellingham residents live in poverty.
Slumlords have found fertile ground to take advantage of renters and fly under the radar.
Rebecca Quirke, head of the advocacy group Tenants Revolt that runs the map, said the goal is to be able to expand this service in other areas, duplicate the tool, and share it with renters all over the country. If you're interested, hit 'em up! https://shitrentalradar-whatcom-tenantsrevolt.hub.arcgis.com/
A great deal of discussion about police abolition concerns non-police responses to violent crime, but most police work is unrelated to violent crime. Most, maybe all, of this is economic in nature – designed to keep working people from using productive property to meet their own needs directly – to keep the commons enclosed. This work means the police are inextricably integrated into the economy in surprising ways that are largely undiscussed in the context of abolition, which would trigger monumental, almost unimaginable changes in how we as a society meet our human needs through work. It’s likely that the end of policing would mean the end of capitalism, which suggests that it won’t be easy to achieve given the magnitude of what’s at stake.