“Experience. I think it’s a combination of my schooling…and then my practice of working in local government. And also my love of cities and my fascination with space, movement and the relationship to people and how cities should and can work better for more people.”
“I love coming to Mac [with my kids] and watching the women and men play volleyball. Anytime I can bring my kids on campus, it’s a good day.”
“I don’t think I have heard anyone in the community say they are opposed to having students living in the community. Most people enjoy that. The challenge is the number of absentee landlords who use and accumulate what were single family homes and turn them into student dwellings and sometimes don’t have proper approvals for doing so.”
“It starts with whether we value public transit. And if we’re not prepared to put money into public transit, then fewer people are going to use public transit…so I would be looking in our budget discussions to ensure that this council maintains a commitment to its ten-year transit strategy.”
“If we don't make those investments now, the [Hamilton Street Railway] wait times will just get more challenging because the buses are going to be have to competing with more cars on the road. [The LRT] will add to our assessment base, it will address matters related to air quality, and it will provide for an improved transit ride.”
“I'm not very prescriptive in what it should look like… I have a very strong commitment to growing the capacity of citizens to understand how local government works and understand how city building works.”
“There needs to be a poll on campus. To me, that’s a no-brainer.”
“I believe in shared safe shared streets. That means that we have to go back to looking at the street as a commons area that should be available for different types of use. So it should be safer to walk along the street and it should be safe to cycle on the street, and those choices should be available to you and conveniently so.”
“I hope that they would engage in their city to learn more about Hamilton…Get off campus. Visit your city. Pick a neighbourhood. How might your studies be applied to that neighbourhood? Explore. Show curiosity and interest and make a difference.”
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Since May 1, a group of 100 tenants from Stoney Creek towers in Hamilton’s east end have been protesting proposed rent increases and uncompleted repairs in their apartment complex.
Stoney Creek towers is a four building, 618-unit complex owned by InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust and managed by CLV group.
The rent strike demonstrates ongoing issues with housing in Hamilton and across Ontario.
A 2018 report from the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario found that rent is unaffordable for nearly half of all Ontario tenants.
Hamilton has experienced significant rent increases in recent years. The average cost of rent in Hamilton has increased at double the rate of inflation since 2012.
Rent increases come as a result of both rising house prices and decreasing rental vacancy rates, according to a 2017 report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. As a result of increased demand, apartments are more expensive and harder to find.
“Because of the real estate situation, rent is going up everywhere, people from Toronto and Mississauga are choosing to move here,” said Syed, a tenant at Stoney Creek Towers.
Despite higher rent, living conditions often remain the same. Many low to medium income renters across Hamilton experience substandard living conditions.
According to a study of low to medium renters across Hamilton conducted by Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, 43 per cent of tenants across Hamilton reported a lack of heating in the winter.
Unresponsive landlords are also common across Hamilton. Fifty-nine per cent of tenants surveyed by ACORN reported having problems getting their landlords to conduct repairs.
According to Sarah Wahab, a volunteer with the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network, leaving units in disrepair is an intentional strategy to push current tenants out so that the landlord can increase rent for new tenants.
The Ontario rent increase guideline restricts the amount that rent can be increased on occupied units each year. However, there is no rent control on empty units.
“The landlord will neglect repairs in order to push the tenant out of the unit so that they can raise the rent for the next tenant that comes in,” said Wahab.
Tenants living in Stoney Creek towers say that long-standing repairs in their units are often left uncompleted.
The Stoney Creek Towers website states that, “24-hour professional maintenance staff are just a phone call away”. However Rita*, a resident at Stoney Creek Towers, found the property management to be difficult to access and unresponsive to requests.
When Rita experienced structural problems in her unit, she had to call multiple times over the course of a week before anybody came. After three or four visits over the course of a month, it was finally determined that there was an underlying problem.
Syed says that his apartment building has an ongoing bedbug problem. He also identified issues with plumbing, lighting and mold in the building.
According to Syed, rent for new tenants is often double what current tenants pay.
CLV group makes repairs to units before renting them out to new tenants. However, Syed says that these repairs are minor. Flooring and baseboards are replaced, and the apartment gets a new set of paint. However, the underlying structural issues remain.
The Ontario rent increase guideline protects tenants from sharp rent increases. The guideline limits the amount that a landlord can increase tenants’ rent in a year. In 2018 the maximum rent increase was 1.8 per cent.
In order to increase the rent on occupied units beyond the 1.8 per cent limit, landlords can apply to the Landlord Tenant Board for a rent increase above the guideline.
If a landlord can demonstrate that significant repair, renovation or replacement has been undertaken in the building, they are eligible for an Above Guideline Increase, which allows rent to be increased beyond the yearly limit.
CLV has applied to the Hamilton landlord tenant board to be approved for a rent hike of 9.6 per cent over the next two years.
According to Roseanne MacDonald-Holtman, community relations manager for CLV, investments have been made to improve heating, air exhaust and plumping, among other repairs.
However, tenants at Stoney Creek towers say the repairs have been primarily cosmetic and have not adequately addressed underlying structural issues.
“CLV is doing superficial work that's completely cosmetic, just to attract newer tenants,” said Syed. “Painting the lobby, putting in a fake fireplace that's completely digital, it doesn't even give off heat, it gets you to think are they really thinking about the tenants?”
Furthermore, if approved, the AGI increase would make rent unaffordable for many of the current residents at Stoney Creek towers.
According to Wahab, the Stoney Creek towers buildings are home to a lot of immigrants, poor people and people with disabilities.
“The issue is that this issue in Hamilton, the demographic cannot afford this price rate,” said Syed.
To demand that CLV drops the AGI and does repairs in all the units, tenants in the Stoney Creek towers began a rent strike.
According to Wahab, a rent strike involves withholding rent. Tenants set their rent aside with the understanding that they will pay it back once the landlord agrees to the demands.
By engaging in the rent strike, tenants aim not only to appeal to their landlord and property manager, but also to the general public.
“Everybody should know what is going on in the apartment,” said Rita. “People will not know what is going on until people open their mouths.”
Tenants, supported by HTSN, have been engaging in campaigns and rallies to engage their landlord and property management company over the course of the campaign.
Rent strikes have been a protesting tactic since the early 1800s. One of the largest rent strikes occurred in New York city in 1907, and led to the establishment of rent control.
More recently, tenants in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood engaged in a three month long rent strike to protest a proposed AGI increase and unfilled work orders in their buildings. Their efforts paid off when the landlord withdrew their AGI application in August 2017.
So far in Stoney Creek, neither CLV nor REIT has agreed to meet with the tenants to negotiate. Instead, Wahab says that they are engaging in a “campaign of harassment”.
On Sept. 12, CLV staff posted letters to tenants’ doors stating that loitering was not permitted in the lobby, stairwells, or common areas. Soon afterwards, CLV group erected walls in the lobbies of two Stoney Creek buildings that block access to meeting spaces. According to the HTSN blog, this is meant to prevent tenants from holding meetings in their building lobbies.
According to MacDonald-Holtman on behalf of CLV, the walls were part of a lobby renovation.
“When complete, residents will benefit from upgraded facilities and services,” stated MacDonald-Holtman in an email.
On Oct. 9, rent strikers received eviction notices. According to Wahab, this is a strategy to scare people into not going on rent strike.
Tenants are supported by lawyers from the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and have raised money to cover the cost of potential filing fees. Over the course of the campaign, nobody on rent strike has been evicted.
The Landlord Tenant Board will decide whether or not to approve the AGI in a meeting Nov. 1-2. For the tenants in Stoney Creek Towers, the issues go beyond just money.
Tenants will continue to organize, regardless of the outcome.
“We're a part of this community,” said Syed. “We've been part of this community, and we're trying to protect this community and the people coming into it.”
* Names have been changed
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By Daniella Mikanovsky
A string of prowling incidents and break-ins stretching from Aug. 2018 to Sept. 11 continues to rock Westdale. In the wake of these events, students and organizations on campus have been stepping up their advocacy for landlord accountability in the community.
The first incident occurred on Aug. 3, when an intruder broke into the second story window of McMaster Integrated Science student Connor MacLean’s home. After the incident, MacLean and his roommates called their landlords.
“We felt unsafe in that house, so the landlords agreed to put in motion lights. A month later, there was still nothing. We ended up buying our own motion lights, our own security camera, and we installed it ourselves,” MacLean explained. “Safety should not be the student’s responsibility alone. The landlords need to be the first people looking out for that.”
Shemar Hackett, associate vice president of municipal affairs on for the McMaster Students Union, is planning to tackle the issue of unaccountable landlords. The committee he leads is focused on improving off-campus life for students, including housing safety.
One initiative the committee hopes to implement is the Landlord Licencing System, a city-run program that would fund annual housing inspections and certify that any tenant complaints are taken seriously. This system would encourage landlord responsibility, with the goal being for students to have safety features in their homes, including functioning locks on all windows and doors.
An additional initiative that the committee has been undertaking is a Landlord Rating System, which will exist as an online forum for students to rate and report their housing units. Similar to the website Rate My Professor, this website could incentivize landlords to take responsibility when maintaining their houses.
“Once the website gains traction and students begin to report their experiences, irresponsible landlords will begin to see a decline in students seeking their properties. In return, students should see safer living conditions as landlords are now motivated to upkeep their rental units, which increases the quality of living for students and ensures their safety,” said Hackett.
With a host website confirmed, Hackett expects to have the program available for student use in the new year.
There are also programs on campus available for students who feel a lack of security. For instance, a skill students may want to acquire is self-defense. McMaster Athletics and Recreation is offering two 10-week classes for “Krav Maga Self-Defense” this fall.
It is worth noting that “Women’s Self-Defense” has not been scheduled this term. The Athletics and Recreation department is facing difficulty with locating a space for this class due to the renovations occuring in the David Braley Athletic Centre. Although classes may return in the winter term, in light of the Westdale break-ins, the lack of classes may be a significant issue.
For female students who are looking for a women’s-only class, the Equity and Inclusion Office may offer it. Pilar Michaud, director of human rights and dispute resolution at the EIO, explains that in the past, the EIO ran a women’s self-defense workshop.
Michaud also points to several other services available to students, including Meagan Ross, McMaster’s sexual violence response coordinator, the MSU’s Women and Gender Equity Network and Good2Talk, a free and confidential 24/7 helpline that offers professional support for university students in Ontario.
Just a friendly reminder that Good2Talk is a 24/7 Confidential Helpline for post-secondary students. Call 1-866-925-5454 or visit https://t.co/TERu6Z9JUe #MentalHealthMatters
— OUSA (@OUSAhome) February 1, 2018
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By: Michelle Nakansah
As classes draw to a close, for many, concerns over exams are mixed with concerns over future housing.
For those looking for housing, there is a new game changer in the Ontario housing market that may be extremely beneficial for McMaster’s off-campus community.
Finally, in our favour, the Ontario government has introduced a standard lease which will be required to be used in nearly all rental agreements beginning April 30, 2018.
A simple lease should be a right to both landlords and tenants and awareness and education of leasing rights should be provided in an understandable manner. We all know how difficult it can get to understand leasing agreements at times.
Until to this decision by the Ontario government, there was no standardized form of rental agreements, leaving both tenants and landlords confused and forced to rely on online or secondary sources as a template for leasing agreements.
Deciding between difficult leasing agreements can be a struggle. The confusing language and long readings have often caused difficulty and worry while signing leases. We will struggle no longer.
For those of us interested in renting after April, this new form would be required for most privately, on the market residential tenancies including tenancies in single, and semi-detached houses, apartment buildings, rented condominiums and secondary units including basement apartments.
For those looking for housing, there is a new game changer in the Ontario housing market that may be extremely beneficial for McMaster’s off-campus community.
You, as students, are now able to understand most leasing agreements.
In addition, the new standard lease form must contain three portions; “Mandatory Fields” including names of landlord and renter, the tenancy term and other terms.
Although the renting market in Ontario is quite large, including several university and student towns such as Hamilton, with McMaster and Mohawk. Ontario is one of the later provinces to join in on the standard leasing effort. In addition to several other provinces in the Canada, the Standard Lease is an effort to eliminate confusions in leases and make the terms clear to both the landlord and the tenant.
Under this new act, previous leases that do not fit in the template may still be used however it must comply with the Residential Tenancies Act.
However, beginning April 30, if you as a student renter were to request the new Standard Lease, landlords must provide it.
Failure to provide a tenant with the new standard lease within 21 days gives the right to withhold up to one month’s rent.
If a landlord still does not provide a standard lease after 30 days of the 21-day threshold, tenants are no longer required to pay that rent back.
Look at that, because of someone else’s negligence, you could get free rent.
I feel that introducing this new standard lease is a step towards improving conditions in housing market specifically between landlords and tenants.
To start, this new standard lease makes the language found in leasing forms easier to understand, to avoid any confusions that may arise.
For me, the absence of a standard lease causes me to bypass many illegal terms to appear on leasing agreements, including “banning pets and guests, or demanding post-dated cheques.”
The introduction of this lease is a win for all students including myself, who have often been forced into buying into illegal leasing terms, simply because we know no better.
We all know about the stresses that come with searching for student housing, and this lease should not be an additional one.
The Ontario government’s effort to develop a standard lease is a bold attempt to protect landlords and tenants from any issues that may arise due to the confusing wording of leasing agreements.
By introducing the standard lease, the Ontario government seeks to help both parties by clarifying each of their rights, making the lease easy to understand and eliminate some of the confusions that have arose in the past.
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When he was in his third year at McMaster, Brad Tyler was living in the basement of a house in the McMaster community. In 2016, cockroaches began to infest the place.
“The landlord was told several times that the bug problem was escalating and he didn’t consider the severity of the situation nor seem to act urgently,” said Tyler.
It was not until the spring of 2017 when Tyler decided to cancel on his rent cheque until the landlord addressed the cockroach problem.
“I brought to his attention that the raid was a huge health hazard to the home and tenants and the landlord was still reluctant to properly resolve the issue,” said Tyler, who ended up moving out early.
In 2015, fourth-year McMaster student Mara* rented a place from a landlord who, unbeknownst to her and her roommates, was being chased by the fire department and the city for failing to bring his building up to code since October 2014.
“The landlord has been keeping secret all sorts of information pertaining to our living in the house,” said Mara*. “He has been showing up at the house without any notice as well as allowing his hired contractors and electricians come into our home with no notice,” she said.
On Feb. 7, the Ontario government introduced a new standard lease, which uses simple language to help tenants understand their rights. The update will be implemented for private residential leases signed on or after April 30.
In spite of these issues, Mara* will live in this place until the end of April.
In recent years, more and more stories have popped up of landlords taking advantage of McMaster students. However, this may change with the Ontario government’s new standard lease and other efforts being made to increase landlord accountability.
On Feb. 7, the Ontario government introduced a new standard lease, which uses simple language to help tenants understand their rights. The update will be implemented for private residential leases signed on or after April 30.
At McMaster, steps are also being taken to make students like Tyler and Mara* less vulnerable to being taken advantage of by landlords in the community.
In their year-plans, Chukky Ibe, president of the McMaster Students Union, and Ryan Deshpande, vice president (Education), sought to build a landlord wiki aimed at increasing transparency about landlords in Hamilton.
The project will provide students with an online platform to evaluate their landlord and living situation.
Although the details are still in the works, according to Stephanie Bertolo, MSU associate vice president (Municipal Affairs), the landlord wiki system will likely allow students to post reviews anonymously.
“There is a possibility that students may not want to publish a review since the landlord could figure out it was them,” said Bertolo. “However, since the reviews are anonymous, this should prevent this issue.”
“We will likely build a low-cost, temporary version of the system to get [landlord wiki] running and gain traction around it, and then have it fully launched for next year.”
Ryan Deshpande
MSU vice president (Education)
The landlord wiki was originally slated to become available in February, but has since been pushed back.
“We are currently sitting with the questions and want to run them by a lawyer because there are legal implications to starting a program like this,” said Deshpande. “We will likely build a low-cost, temporary version of the system to get it running and gain traction around it, and then have it fully launched for next year,” he said.
Nevertheless, other groups on campus have been working to help students like Tyler and Mara*.
On Feb. 28, the Pro Bono Law Ontario McMaster team will be holding a “Stop, Drop and Law” speaker series event in room 108 of Burke Science Building.
“We have a couple of local lawyers coming in, and they’ll talk about student’s right as tenants and other in’s and out’s of property law regarding student housing,” said Janna Getty, a PBLO McMaster executive.
With these efforts, students should be able to advocate for their tenant rights.
*named changed to protect identity
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Discrimination from landlords is pervasive in McMaster’s off-campus housing market. Students and grads are finally speaking up and working to address the problem.
In his second year, Alex, a recent McMaster alumnus who requested to be referred to under an alias, and his friends were looking at off-campus housing. With money in hand, they approached an owner.
“We talked to the owner. [Though] he was browsing groups, he seemed more interested in renting to an all-caucasian group than he was to us,” said Alex.
Though Alex and his friends were keen on making the deposit, the owner would not let them.
“He definitely seemed like he was going to take the other group should they have wanted it, though,” said Alex.
After sending some caucasian female friends to the owner with the same deposit, however, Alex was able to secure the place.
A second-year McMaster student experienced problems with her landlord after moving in. Despite being able to speak English fluently, her landlord refuses to communicate with tenants except for the one who spoke the landlord’s first language.
“She does not respond to my texts anymore so I stopped messaging her,” said the student. “One day she sent a contractor and needed to speak to one of us so I took the phone from the contractor. I was explaining the situation when she interrupted me and asked if [the favourite tenant] was in the house, when I said yes, the landlord asked to speak to [her] instead of me.”
Another McMaster student said her landlord started policing the social situation in her house.
“The landlord had made many comments about regulating who comes into the house and who comes over [specifically any male guests] due to the fact that we were ‘women who needed to be taken care of’ and made it clear that he can check in at any time because of safety concerns,” said the student.
“[Students of colour] tell us that they’ve been looking for places for months, and I doubt it’s just bad luck,”
Property Manager
Spotted Properties
Most of the discrimination, however, manifests itself before tenancy. According to a property manager from Spotted Properties, a local consultation and management service that works with landlords during the vetting process, a handful of landlords request student tenants from particular demographics.
The discrimination, in large part, stems from the fact that these landlords are part of an older generation.
“The[ir] bias ranges from gender, university program, race, dress style and the list can go on,” said the property manager, who asked to remain unnamed.
Landlords often explicitly discriminate against students from minority and marginalized groups.
“One time, this elderly lady whispered to me that she doesn’t want to rent to Indian students,” he said.
Academic problems are also grounds for discrimination.
“We get clients who say they only want students in health science…. We also get clients who say they don’t want any social science students.”
Students of colour are disproportionately disadvantaged.
“[Students of colour] tell us that they’ve been looking for places for months, and I doubt it’s just bad luck,” said the property manager. “We started keeping tabs on this and found that towards the end of August, we see an influx of students of colour.”
When asked how Spotted Properties is curbing the discrimination, the property manager said that, though the business has yet to take concrete steps, he believes that education is key.
“We try to disconnect landlords and tell them that, as a company, we can’t accommodate them…. But we want to do more,” he said.
The property manager noted that, because many landlords are parents of McMaster students and grads, the university could also be doing more to reduce discrimination.
“Even if McMaster sent out some awareness information about the laws governing tenancy and the inaccuracy of stereotypes, it could make a difference,” he said.
While increased education may not remedy the problem entirely, it’s a step that needs to be taken.
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A little over three years ago, I excitedly moved into my student house. I predicted it would soon become the backdrop of my soon-to-be reality TV-worthy student life, but instead I was welcomed into my new home with a slew of landlord upsets. With everything from bathroom leaks, to broken decks, to a mysterious older man who used to enter our home at night to fix the plumbing (yes, this was as terrifying as it sounds), at times my student house was more of a problem than a personal oasis.
At the time, I didn’t realize that all of these issues were at the fault of my landlord, since he often asserted his authority in a way that made myself and my housemates feel responsible.
We are definitely not the only students to be in a situation like this. Tenants of Westdale and Ainsliewood homes have often fallen victim to landlord traps that place them in uncomfortable and unlawful positions. In an effort to combat this problem, the MSU’s Student Community Support Network has launched the #MacLivesHere campaign, a Twitter and recently MUSC-centric campaign that will help students become better acquainted with leasing homes and give them an opportunity to share their grievances.
The #MacLivesHere campaign is, in theory, a great idea. So many students get into signing leases without knowing all their rights, and this has led to complications in the past where students end up getting the short end of a deal that is supposed to be in their favour.
The only unfortunate part of the campaign is that it is run by a somewhat overshadowed MSU service, the SCSN.
The MSU is a big organization. It is comprised of both large and small services, with some getting more attention than others. This structure is something expected, but it also begs the question, how necessary are all of our services, and can our money be better used serving groups with the power to make campaigns noticed and accessible?
The SCSN is a service that is meant to help students build positive relationships with the Hamilton community. Unfortunately, even though their aim is noble, some of their efforts and campaigns often get overlooked when larger groups take center stage. It could be a valuable and well-used service for students, but when larger promotions sidestep its actions, the group just appears to be another accessory of the MSU that helps keen students piggyback on a service to work their way towards a future full-time job with the Union.
As a person who is more informed about campus events and services than most, I still don’t know all that much about the SCSN. It is one of multiple MSU services that passes just enough under the radar that very few seem to be checking up on them — this is a disservice both to them and the student body.
Perhaps its time to take a good look at our services and decide which ones are worth our time, and figure out how we can better use our resources to make those shine. It would be great to see more students exposed to the Mac Lives Here campaign, but as far as many students are concerned, SCSN hasn’t even signed a lease.
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Last April, my housemates and I backed out of a potentially exploitative and disastrous lease. We have the tenants at the time to thank for reaching out to inform us of their landlord’s undeniably shady behaviour. Many students aren’t so lucky.
On Sept. 6, a story was shared on Spotted at Mac about a landlord who took two months of rent but never responded when the student wanted to move in. More students commented about their own experiences with this particular landlord, urging others to avoid renting from them.
This landlord is only one of many who will manipulate and deceive students to rent their rooms. The students are then stuck in a twelve or, if they’re lucky, eight-month long contract. Some rooms and houses don’t meet the safety standards, or aren’t up to code by Ontario rental guidelines, but are being rented out anyway due to a lack of resources, education and better options.
When the time comes to rent a place near campus, students find themselves too overwhelmed by the process of house-hunting, and lacking guidance, they often make uninformed decisions. Houses go quickly and potential landlords warn that they have another group interested in the house so they better act fast.
While some find the ads on Kijiji and Craigslist, others take the more cautious route of looking at McMaster’s Off Campus Resource page. Unfortunately, it does not appear as though the university takes any steps to regulate and verify the ads posted on their page, or the contracts that the landlord will ask the university’s students to sign.
It is the university’s responsibility, in some capacity, to regulate the landlords who are renting to students, especially in the vicinity of campus. Living situations for students who rent are of paramount importance to their health, both physical and mental, as well as their success in school.
Although the Off-Campus Resource Centre exists, and I would recommend that anyone who has renting troubles visit them for advice, it is not enough. The university allows landlords to place room ads on their website, giving these landlords the privilege of the legitimacy that comes from being connected to the McMaster website. If landlords benefit from this relationship, it should also come with greater responsibility and stricter rules.
In addition to asking more from the landlords, the Off-Campus Resource Centre should also focus on outreaching to students, educating them on the specifics of renting, the illegalities that often sneak their way into year-long contracts, and the dangers of many potential residences that are being rented out.
Ultimately, McMaster has a responsibility to its students to ensure that things it affiliates itself with are safe and legal. Although students can post their renting horror stories on social media and hope it reaches their peers, it is not our sole responsibility to make sure we’re not exploited and manipulated by landlords.
Whether you just moved on, have been living in your house for a while, or are still looking for a place to call your own for the next few years, don’t forget that your safety and health comes first. Landlords aren’t allowed to bully you into accepting lesser conditions, and while pursuing legal action can be a hassle, it helps you and future tenants create better conditions for McMaster students.
