Several teachers attended a rally in Parkdale this morning to support approximately 200 tenants participating in a rent strike in the west-end neighbourhood.
The strike was launched on May 1 by a group of tenants in six Parkdale apartment buildings. The residents are calling on MetCap Living Management, the property manager, to carry out what tenants say are much-needed repairs to their units and withdraw an application to increase rent above what the Landlord and Tenant Board typically allows.
“This is about us supporting students,” Lyla MacAulay, a teacher at Queen Victoria Public School, told CP24 at Monday’s protest.
“We know that the students are really impacted in their learning by how poor their accommodations are and about the stress that their families are undergoing over possible rent increases.”
The maximum rental increase a landlord can impose without gaining special approval from the Landlord Tenant Board is 1.5 per cent but MetCap has applied to raise rents by approximately 15 per cent over a three-year period. MetCap says the increase will go toward the cost of repairing balconies and railings.
“What I’d like to see done is MetCap withdraw their application… and that they fix their buildings, that they keep their promises,” Hayley Mezei, another teacher at Queen Victoria Public School, said Monday.
“I’ve been at (the school) for 8 years and since Day 1, students talk about their living conditions. They show up at school. They have bed bug bite marks on their necks and on their hands that you can see. So this is an ongoing issue. It is not a problem that is going away anytime soon unless MetCap decides to make a difference.”
Cole Webber, a spokesperson for the tenants and an employee of Parkdale Community Legal Services, previously told CP24 that many of the residents who refused to pay their rent were handed eviction notices last month.
Tensions between property management staff and tenants came to a head last week after a confrontation between MetCap staff and a rent strike organizer was captured on camera.
According to Webber, tenants at 135 Tyndall Avenue went to speak to their property manager about putting an elderly couple up in a hotel while repairs were made to their unit.
Webber said the manager refused to speak to tenants and attempted to leave the area in a truck driven by Brent Merrill, the chief executive officer of MetCap.
A video sent to multiple media outlets, including CP24, showed a tenant standing in front of Merrill’s vehicle as he attempted to pull away. When the tenant refused to move, Merrill accelerated and the tenant was seen quickly running backward before moving aside.
Following the incident, Merrill told The Toronto Star that the protesters were chasing and threatening the property manager.
