“I can’t live like this:” Economic uncertainty and threat of eviction deepens rental insecurity fears for Toronto tenant living in mould-infested apartment
By Chris Young
TORONTO — Gloria* stands in the living room of her mould-infested apartment with tears in her eyes. The thick, black growth scales across the walls of the bathroom and bedroom and encircles around the window. The odour emitted from the mould permeates the air, making it difficult to breathe. This has been Gloria’s life for more the majority of her 14 years living in a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto.
“The cold water which is coming out of the shower hits the mould from the wall,” she says. “It lands on me, it lands on my hair, it lands on my arms.
“You’re never free,” she adds. “You go into the bathroom to take a shower. You take a shower to feel clean. You come back out feeling dirtier.”
Gloria lost her job in the events industry early last year as much of the country went into lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic. In addition to the persistent mould growth that envelops her apartment, she lost hot water last summer due to plumbing issues in the building. Nine months in, it hasn’t returned.
Despite the dire state of her living conditions, and with no family or close friends, she has nowhere else to turn, and nowhere else to go. And with the threat of eviction looming, she could find herself without place to call home.
“A home is supposed to be a safe haven, it’s supposed to be a place where you go to feel secure, safe, happy,” says Gloria, straightening her gaze.
For many in Canada, dire living situations and rental insecurity due to precarious finances are all too familiar realities which have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Already in most major cities in Ontario, the vacancy rates were very low. A healthy vacancy rate is considered to be three per cent. We haven’t seen three per cent in Toronto for over a decade,” says Douglas Kwan, director of advocacy and legal services at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.
Kwan points to a recent Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation study that found that eight out of 10 cities in Canada that were determined or deemed unaffordable prior to the pandemic were located in Ontario.
“So, there was a housing crisis prior to the pandemic,” Kwan says. “Once the pandemic hits, the economic impacts on society manifest itself. People were losing jobs, (the) unemployment rate increased. As a result, people fell behind in their rents.”
For GTA residents who may have qualified for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, the $2,000 monthly benefit payment wasn’t enough to fully cover rent or other basic necessities for people losing their jobs, Kwan notes. “So people fell behind and they continue to fall behind,” he says.
Kwan says the notion that rental rates fell during the pandemic was only true for a specific class of housing, notably the downtown condo markets, where people were paying for example $2,200 on average per month on their condo — and even in those instances, the rates only slightly decline.
“Those aren’t the people who were considered low income, or those who are marginalized. Those weren’t the type of housing that that community was living in. For those people, their rent rates did not change at all. So people living outside of the downtown core (in a) one-bedroom basement apartment those rents remain the same — except now they face the added insecurity of the loss of a job. The fact that they might be homeless or face eviction, during a pandemic when people are told to stay home, when being outside is a life or death decision. And it is a very perilous time for people who are marginalized low-income tenants in Ontario.”
At first, Gloria didn’t realize that the mould was present. “There’s mismatched tiles, which have all been painted… so everything seems to blend in.”
She noticed hairs painted over and trapped onto the tiles. She started cleaning furiously, trying every product she could think of. As the paint peeled off the walls and parts of the tub the mould revealed itself and began spreading like wildfire.
The bathroom is now a patchwork of mould with a blackened tub. the air hangs thick with it, tightening into your chest.
Her hot water was switched off during repairs in August 2020 and has not returned since. She kept a bucket under the sink to catch water. the tap in her tub flows constantly. The bathroom vanity drips continuously.
A constant stream of plumbers have worked in the building doing repairs over the 14 years that she has been a resident, with no fix in sight. There are also problems with the windows in her apartment, and she sleeps with tarpaulin stretched across her bedroom in an effort to keep out the chill. She also struggles to prepare a hot meal as she says her stove has been broken since 2019.
Gloria says that she suffers from the effects of the moisture and the mould, complaining of a burning sensation in her nostrils and throat. She says that she experiences dizziness, lightheadedness and headaches. Health Canada says it considers indoor mould growth to be “a significant health hazard,” and can be linked to increased risk of respiratory allergy symptoms.
Health experts say living in subpar conditions can create a vicious cycle limiting or impacting the ability of an individual with the healthy environment they need to work and provide for themselves outside the home.
Dr. Naheed Dosani, a Toronto-based palliative care physician and health justice activist, says there is a direct through line between subpar living conditions and the health and well-being of individuals.
“We know that without appropriate housing, it’s very difficult for people’s health to improve, for their health care coordination to improve, for their health-care navigation to improve,” says Dosani.”But also around their mental health and other (health) aspects that are so important to help like a good diet, for example. So, housing is inextricably linked to health outcomes.”
Under the Ontario government’s latest emergency stay-at-home order, which is in effect until May 16, the enforcement of residential evictions are temporarily suspended. However, hearings are still taking place with residents across the city facing the very real possibility of losing their homes.
During the first provincewide lockdown in early 2020, Gloria fell behind with her rent payments. She explains to Ranee Management, who own the building, that she had lost her job and was struggling to pay the rent.
At first, she says they seemed compassionate, agreeing to let her pay $400 each month towards rent. As the first lockdown ended, she applied for Ontario Works assistance and dipped into her savings and was able resume her full rent payments, which fell just short of $1,000.
Yet as further lockdowns came, and her work remained cancelled due to the pandemic, she ran into financial difficulties again. She was forced to sell off some of her possessions in order to contribute to her rent .
Gloria reached out again to Ranee Management who, she claims, agreed to allow her to reduce her monthly payments to $400 a month until she was able to find work again. She thought she was safe, she thought she had a home. Then the eviction notice came on March 26 after her landlord filed an ex-parte order.
Representatives for Ranee Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
With an appeal hearing scheduled for May 10, and physical evictions currently suspended by the province until May 16, the future is far from certain.
The choices are stark for many people in Gloria’s position when facing eviction during the pandemic.
Doug Hatlem, a street pastor with Sanctuary Toronto, sees an influx of people who have lost their homes, often after appearing in front of the Landlord and Tenant Board.
“Someone who loses a place might be able to prevail upon friends or family for a time, but often will eventually spend some time homeless. If they try to call the shelter intake system they may get lucky, but will likely be told to call back again and again until they give up. If that fails the options are bleak.”
Gloria knows she should move but rents in the city are expensive.
“I have no family. I have no friends. I don’t know what will be the outcome because we’re going through stages of the pandemic. So everything is uncertain right now.”
Gloria feels very let down by her landlord. She thought she could trust them. “A home is supposed to be a safe haven. It’s supposed to be a place where you feel secure, safe, happy. This is like being in the wilderness.”
Her hands fidget as she tries to contain her emotions.
“I can’t live like this. I need to have a shower. I need to brush my teeth. I have no hot water. This is uninhabitable. My basic necessities are not met, and that is something that is critical for daily living, because if you have no water, you have a bathroom that doesn’t function, a kitchen that doesn’t function, you’re not receiving basic necessities to life. That is abuse. It’s just like animal cruelty. This is cruelty to humans.”
*Name changed for protection reasons
