Renovictions or required repairs? Conflicting stories over conditions at Waterloo apartment building

ACORN staff and tenants of 145 MacGregor Crescent picket outside the building against renovictions, March 29, 2025 (Sidra Jafri/CTV News).

Tenants held a rally on March 29 to protest the conditions at their apartment building in Waterloo.

Emanuel Melo lives at 145 MacGregor Crescent and is one of the residents who received a N13 notice to end his tenancy. He is also a volunteer member of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as the ACORN tenants’ union, who organized the protest.

Melo claimed he and other residents were being renovicted.

“We’ve been fighting this since October,” he told CTV News. “We’ve been going to meetings; we’ve been talking to the press. And, at this point, we said, ‘You know what? We just need to get out there and spread the word in the community,’ because in this area, there’s a lot of low-rise buildings – it seems to be what these landlords target. To kick people out onto the streets for profit when it’s middle to low-income people, that is just morally and legally wrong.”

Melo said he wasn’t planning on leaving his unit.

“I’m not moving out at this point because I know the minute I do, my place is gone and, [being] on disability, I won’t be able to afford to house my children,” he explained. “I will fight and die for my children and there’s no way that they’re going to break my family apart.”

Residents also listed a series of other complaints with their management company, including poor maintenance, a lack of hot water and the removal of storage units that some tenants had been using for at least a decade.

Melo said he felt compelled to speak out as homelessness is a growing concern in the community.

“The single mom next door, the 82-year-old man that’s been here 42 years. These are people’s lives, and low to middle income people. We don’t have a ton of money. We can’t just go buy a house,” he said. “I’m on ODSP with three children that I’m raising as best as I can. Four of us in a two-bedroom apartment, doing what we can, and now we have to deal with possibly being on the street.”

Response from Alveda Management

Alan Gonen, the property manager for Alveda Management, reached out to CTV News after this story was originally published to share the company’s side of the story.

He said four tenants were issued N13 notices after the property management company took over the building in November 2024. Gonen also provided photos allegedly taken inside some the building’s units, which the company said “clearly demonstrate the need for repairs.”

They showed cluttered rooms, disrepair and, in some cases, mould. CTV News has decided not to post those photos online.

In response, ACORN shared their own photos that were allegedly taken in some of the other units where the tenant was issued an N13 notice. Those photos showed tidy rooms and no obvious damage. CTV News has decided not to show those images to protect the privacy of tenants.

Gonen, on behalf of Alveda Management, also cited several ongoing issues with Melo, specifically, as a tenant. The company said he was issued multiple N4 notices for non-payment of rent, there were concerns about the condition of his unit and, after CTV News’ original story was published, Melo allegedly trespassed on an employee’s private property and police had to intervene.

ACORN addressed those allegations directly with CTV News. They said Melo is no longer in arrears and a N4 notice is not a valid reason for issuing a N13 as they are two separate issues.

In a follow-up email, Gonen reshared the photos he said were taken inside Melo’s unit, stating that they were taken during an inspection, but did not specify the date.

“The management company issued N13 notices based on the results of these inspections,” he wrote.

As for the trespassing claim, ACORN said Melo was attempting to get in touch with the landlord, MacGregor PIM Inc., at the address listed as their head office.

“This is a common tactic landlords use to downplay or discredit tenants who stand up for their rights,” ACORN said in an email to CTV News. “Spreading negative rumours against tenants who speak up, claiming tenants are lying about issues, inciting in-fighting between neighbors, claiming renovations are ‘necessary’ – these are all an attempt to disorganize tenant unions fighting renovictions and scare other tenants away from speaking up and working together.”

Alveda also wanted to address other claims made by tenants, including problems with the building’s garbage disposal and snow removal.

“Snow removal was done twice this year,” one tenant told CTV News on March 29. “This winter we couldn’t even get out. If there would have been an emergency, we wouldn’t have been able to get out… so, they’re trying to drive us out by not taking care of it.”

Alveda said snow removal services were called on 15 times this past winter, either by an external contractor or by people within their own team and offered to share those records with CTV News.

The company also explained that hot water and garbage services are managed by a third-party contractor, over which they have no control.

“Landlords are legally responsible for the upkeep of their property,” ACORN said. “If the landlord is using an external contractor to manage the property, that landlord is also responsible for ensuring the contractor actually does their job. Otherwise, they should hire a different contractor or complete the maintenance themselves.”

Gonen confirmed that one of the tenants who was issued an N13 notice has since moved out of 145 MacGregor Crescent.