Toronto makes developers replace demolished rental units. The city fears the province plans to change that

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.

Thestar.com
May 10, 2023
May Warren

The city is warning that its rental replacement policy, designed to ensure that tenants in older apartment buildings torn down for condos get comparable units at similar rents, is in danger of being weakened by the province.

In a new report going to council this week, Toronto staff outline concerns with provincial Bill 97, which gives the minster of Municipal Affairs and Housing the power to “fundamentally change the city’s current rental replacement practices.”

Under the current city policy, introduced in 2007, developers that plan to demolish rental buildings of more than six units must replace existing apartments for tenants, at the same size, and provide similar rents for at least 10 years.

Possible changes raise “a level of uncertainty” and cause a “lot of anxiety” for tenants, said Deanna Chorney, the city’s manager of policy and strategic initiatives, policy and analysis, in an interview.

Megan Kee, a tenant at 55 Brownlow Ave., a midtown building that is threatened by an application to tear it down and build condos, said making it easier to remove affordable housing “makes absolutely no sense.”

“For Bill 97 to be quite ambiguous about exactly what those changes are and to weaken the existing laws in Toronto is terrifying,” she said. “They’re already not enough for tenants.”

According to the report, the city’s current policy has secured the replacement of about 5,000 rental units.

In an emailed statement to the Star, provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing spokesperson Melissa Diakoumeas said the government is “exploring any and all ways to increase housing supply of all types.”

“The changes proposed as part of the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act would help enable the province to create a balanced framework governing municipal rental replacement bylaws that streamlines the construction and revitalization of rental housing, while protecting tenants,” she said.

“For example we are exploring a framework where a municipality could require that replacement units have the same core features (i.e., same number of bedrooms) as they did previously, and requiring that tenants are given the right of first refusal to the new unit at similar rent.”

The province is also seeking input on potential regulations for rental replacement across all municipalities, posting a proposal on its Ontario Regulatory Registry for consultation by May 21.

In response, the city report raises fears that new potential regulations would allow replacement units to be smaller, limit the city’s ability to restrict rents, reduce compensation tenants receive while waiting to move back in, allow developers to provide cash instead of new units, and/or create a new definition of affordable housing.

“That should not happen,” said Patti Pokorchak, a longtime tenant at 230 Lake Promenade, one of a cluster of Etobicoke buildings under a demolition proposal.

“You’re displacing about 1,000 to 2,000 people,” she added. “I think that for disrupting our lives there should be compensation.”

Applications for such projects have been increasing in Toronto, and there are currently 73 that propose demolishing 3,440 existing rental units. The number of affordable rental units approved for demolition and conversion has also climbed, from 332 in 2018, to 867 in 2022, according to the city’s website.

With average of rents over $3,000 a month, losing an apartment can mean more than having to move, Kee said.

“People have nowhere to go, people are going to be forced out.”