Part 6: Tenants in Ontario have resources available to defend themselves against landlords—and against bad-faith anti-tenant arguments. Here are a few of them.

Various tenant groups in Ontario organize to fight rent hikes and evictions, sometimes with help from tenancy advocacy organizations. Below, we have compiled a list of some of the active groups and organizations. Additionally, we have included a second list of reports and analyses that can be useful for tenants who are resisting predatory landlordism. Please note that these lists are not exhaustive but simply the best of our knowledge as of the time of writing.

Read the full series

Tenants and housing advocates who call for effective rent regulation face strong opposition. The real estate industry uses simplistic explanations and outdated research to spread myths about rent controls. For ideological reasons, and often without having ever studied the topic, many economists and housing policy analysts further promote these myths. The result is a system of disinformation that has considerable power to influence legislators.

Research findings, on the other hand, support rent regulation. Economic studies of present-day rent controls in Canada and abroad show that they are an effective way to stabilize rents without negative effects.

Divided into six parts

This series is a resource against anti-rent-control propaganda. It is written for tenants and housing advocates, though researchers and policy analysts may also find it useful. It examines rent data in Ontario, explains rent controls, and summarizes relevant research on the topic. The content is divided into six parts that can be read independently and in any order.

Part 1: What is rent control, anyway?

Part 2: Rent control is full of loopholes

Part 3: Above-guideline rent increases are out of control

Part 4: Arguments against rent control don’t hold up to scrutiny

Part 5: Policy solutions and political responses to fix rent control

Part 6: Suggested resources

Organizations

  • The Federation of Metro Tenants’ Association (torontotenants.org) offers various tenant services, including support for tenants who want to organize to dispute AGIs. It also keeps a list of existing tenant groups and associations, torontotenants.org/associations
  • RenovictionsTO (renovictionsto.ca) is a volunteer-run source of information and reports about landlord predatory practices and tenant-organized responses.
  • The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (acto.ca/for-tenants) provides free legal advice to tenants and organizes advocacy campaigns around tenant rights.
  • Over the years, ACORN (acorncanada.org) has organized several campaigns for stronger rent controls in Ontario.

Other active tenant groups fighting rent increases, AGIs, and demovictions in Ontario include:

Useful and recent studies and analysis