'A fight for everyone:' Community coalition backs Toronto tenant rent strike

A coalition of more than 50 community organizations, faith groups, and food banks have pledged their backing for a rent strike that is set to carry into its fourth month.

“It shows that the community is behind the rent strike, so there is a lot of support and we’re not alone,” Bruno Dobrusin of the York South-Weston Tenants Union told CTV News Wednesday. “It is a fight for everyone.”

Some tenants of 33 King St. and 22 John St. in Toronto’s Weston neighbourhood have withheld rent payments to landlord Dream Unlimited since the beginning of the summer, decrying rent increases and ongoing construction in the buildings.

The supporting community groups, which include the North York Harvest Food Bank, the YWCA Toronto, and Social Planning Toronto, penned a letter to Dream Wednesday endorsing the rent strike.

“Our whole community suffers when our neighbours […] are under constant threat of losing their homes because of excessive rent increases,” the coalition wrote.

“We didn’t think that there was going to be that much support, because we didn’t think that many people cared around here,” said Rikki Lacoste, chair of the ACORN Weston chapter. “It turns out, people really do.”

Dream told CTV News in a statement that it has always been open to accommodating tenants facing hardship, but it is “concerned that the tenants are getting bad advice as they are responsible to pay rent, and will need to pay rent, to stay in the buildings.”

The company also stressed that the at-issue above-guideline rent increases were inherited from the previous owner, saying it has not applied for any of those hikes since it acquired the properties in 2021.

But the on-strike tenants were buoyed by the neighbourhood support Wednesday, pledging to continue to withhold payments and calling on the landlord to negotiate.

“The solidarity is amazing,” Sharlene Henry, who lives at 33 King. St., told CTV News.

“The dynamic is changing, because people are listening.”