Tenants rally against rent increases at Heron Gate development
Hazelview Properties says claims about range of increases are not accurate
Guy Quenneville · CBC News
Posted: Apr 16, 2023 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
The small crowd around her cheered as Sandra Mutilva delivered a letter on Saturday afternoon.
Mutilva, joined by about 25 other people, including members of the community group ACORN, was standing outside the front office door of developer Hazelview Properties's Vista Local apartment site in Heron Gate.
The letter demanded a meeting with Hazelview to discuss tenants' concerns about rent hikes.
ACORN has said tenants were told by Hazelview earlier this year of upcoming increases ranging from six per cent to well above that, and that while tenant uproar led to the company lowering the increases, they are still too high.
Multiva said she rents a two-and-a-half-bedroom apartment for about $2,300 a month and that rent increases are to be expected.
"But not at that volume," she said, noting that she was first told her rent would go up by 13 per cent until that figure was revised to almost seven per cent.
"That is not congruent with the current Canadian environment, economically. We have inflation, our salaries are not going as high as seven per cent," Multiva said, adding that, as a woman working as an independent consultant and teacher, she also faces a gender wage gap.
In an emailed statement, Hazelview said ACORN's claims about the increases were not accurate.
"We take input from residents seriously. As such, we have since reconsidered the original rent increases and revised them," the statement said.
The revised rent increases range from 2.85 to 6.8 per cent, the company said.
"Statistics Canada's annual average Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI) for calendar 2022 was 6.8 per cent. Accordingly, we view the rent increases as reasonable in the context of CPI and cost increases associated with operating the property."
Renters are asking the company to settle for a 2.5 per cent increase — in line with Ontario's guideline for 2023.
The guideline is the maximum a landlord can increase most tenants' rent during a year without the approval of the Landlord and Tenant Board, according to the provincial government's website.
However, new buildings such as those at Vista Local are exempt from caps on rent increases, another subject of concern at Saturday's rally.
"This is why we need real rent control," said another Vista Local tenant, Denis Lanouette, adding that some former renters have moved out because they can no longer afford the rent.
CBC reached out to Ontario's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for comment on Saturday.
Lanouette said the pressures residents face are widely felt.
"If you look at PSAC, civil servants…want to go on strike and they do very well overall. So imagine people like us," he said.
In a January 2023 letter to one Vista Local tenant, which was shared with CBC News by ACORN, Hazelview said it would reduce its rent increase to $1,959 (under a renewed one-year lease) even though the unit could fetch a market rent of $2,039.
"The rental market in Ottawa has tightened and rents have increased significantly over the past year," the company stated in the letter.
With files from Kate Porter, Sara Frizzell and Ben Andrews
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...corn-1.6812028
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