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CKMS News -2025-02-13- Delegates warn of increased precarity and homelessness due to continued inaction on renoviction bylaw

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CKMS News -2025-02-13- Delegates warn of increased precarity and homelessness due to continued inaction on renoviction bylaw.

dan kellar
Kitchener, ON – With hundreds of tenants in the city of Kitchener currently facing renoviction, local residents and housing advocates were pleading to city council on Monday night to fast-track by-laws to protect renters from “bad actor” landlords who use renovations as an excuse to evict tenants and increase rental prices. 

While Kitchener council has previously asked city staff to report back in June on the feasibility and jurisdictional issues of a renoviction by-law, 11 delegates, all in favour of stronger protections, argued that the city already has enough information to create new rules. Toronto, London, and Hamilton have all approved renoviction by-laws with Hamilton’s being enacted at the start of this year.

Several delegates at the meeting are members of the grassroots advocacy group Waterloo Region ACORN, who has been organizing renters facing renoviction at several buildings including 250 Frederick St and 141 Borden Ave. 

In the end, councillors voted for the status quo, and staff will still have until June to gather more information.

This show features audio from the February 10th council meeting, including delegates, city staff, and councillors.  

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

CKMS News – Resisting Renovictions in Waterloo Region

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CKMS News – 2023-08-13 – Resisting Renovictions in Waterloo Region

By: MP Holmes
Kitchener

Over the last few months there have been several rallies and multiple media stories on the group of tenants in the residential building at 267 Traynor Avenue in Kitchener, who have organized against an impending renoviction. Their building was recently purchased by a wealthy investor landlord who then issued N13 notices to at least 20 residents in the building and more in another on Ahrens St. in Kitchener

According to the 2023 Housing Hardship Report from the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, almost half (46%) of renters in Ontario are concerned about their landlord wanting to evict them for some reason.

In Waterloo region, the Report notes that 37% of all tenant households are spending a third or more of their income on housing costs, and a person needs to make at least $24 an hour to afford a 1-bedroom apartment here.

Maribel Jagorin organized the tenants at 267 Traynor Ave., and she talked with CKMS about her situation and fight to save her home and prevent her own and her building’s renoviction.

CKMS news also talked with Jenaya Nixon, who up util recently was an outreach worker for the Eviction Prevention Program within the Social Development Centre. Jenaya was one of the initial supports for the Traynor Ave residents and she talked about how renovictions generally occur and how municipal and regional governments can play an important and meaningful role, regardless of  the provincial and federal initiatives.

Information and support to access if you are facing a renoviction in Waterloo Region:
The Eviction Prevention Waterloo Region at the Social Development Centre:
https://www.waterlooregion.org/eviction-prevention-waterloo-region

Easy to access and up-to-date legal information specific to Ontario:
https://stepstojustice.ca/legal-topic/housing-law/eviction/


Check out the archived versions of  this program on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and listen to all the LJI content at canada-info.ca.

If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

CKMS News – 2020-08-03 – A Better Tent City Update and A Recent Eviction from a Shelter

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Host: Trish Holmes

This episode begins with a chat with Jeff Willmer who gives us an update on the “A Better Tent City” project at Lot42 in Kitchener.

The second half of the show is a story about a recent eviction from an emergency shelter. In the last week of July, during which the province of Ontario continued an emergency order due to the COVID-19 crisis, Monica Place in Cambridge gave a young single mother, Emma, and her one-year-old child 48 hours notice to move off their premises with little explanation. The unusual move was precipitated by a post on a local Facebook group page, in which a woman asserted that Emma left her child in 35-degree heat while she was smoking. Emma maintains the child was not in danger, she was not acting in anyway illegally or neglectfully.  When contacted, Monica House confirmed the eviction but would not comment further.

Download Audio: https://storage.radiowaterloo.ca/CKMSNews-2020-08-03-EvictionAndAnABTCUpdate.mp3

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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.