Victory for Jarvis Street Rooming House Tenants

By Fred Alvarado and Adonis Huggins
(Fred and Adonis are journalists at the Focus Media Arts Centre)

Welcome to RPTV Weekly News Show Episode 8. In this weekly news show hosted by RPTV reporters, Fred Alvarado, Murphy Brown, Jessica Mvutu, and Jabin Haque, we present news that impacts Regent Park and other surrounding communities. Episode 8 for the week of October 19th to October 25th, 2021 features the following segments:
Ontario announces the development of a new Indigenous curriculum for grades 1-3 (at 1:14 ); New legislation would require Ontario temp agencies and recruiters to be licensed (at 5:03); Resounding Victory at Landlord and Tenant Board for Jarvis St. Rooming House Tenants (at 6:48); Report of the monthly meeting of the Regent Park Executive Directors Network Meeting (at 10:25) ; Report of the Session 2 of the 2021 Second Annual SDP Deep Dive (at 16:45): Residents can now download enhanced, scannable COVID certificates (at 22:00); Events in the Regent Park area (at 22:50).

One of the stories that was featured was on the resounding victory at the Landlord and Tenant Board for the Inglewood Arms Rooming House tenants located on 295 Jarvis Street.

Residents of the Inglewood Arms, a rooming house located at 295 Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto are celebrating after the Landlord and Tenant Board found them to be tenants with full protection of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and not hotel guests as their landlord asserted. The order dated October 7, 2021 came after three days of hearings.

“It is a horrible thing to live at the whim of a landlord who slowly erodes the tenant rights that so many fought so hard to attain: even the most diligent and compliant of tenants will feel vulnerable and abused. I’ve lived at the Inglewood Rooming House for over 12 years and know many tenants who’ve lived there many years as well. Despite this, the landlord asserted we were mere hotel guests with no rights. So adamant was the landlord and so important is this cause, I decided to challenge the landlord at the Landlord and Tenant Board for all my fellow tenants. The Board’s decision confirms that we are tenants and that we have rights that must be respected. This feels like a great weight is off of my shoulders,” said tenant Joseph Da Silva.

The approximately 90 tenants of the Inglewood Arms are now secure in the knowledge that they enjoy the same protections as other tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, including rent control and protection from arbitrary eviction. While Mr. Da Silva’s application addressed his tenancy specifically, the Board’s finding that the Inglewood Arms is a rooming house and not a hotel brings the entire building under the protection of the province’s tenancy legislation.

“When we first started talking to tenants in this building, there was a lot of fear. The tenants feared they could be evicted at a moment’s notice without legal recourse. A lot of folks here are elderly or on disability. Rooming houses are a viable affordable housing option for many in Toronto. This decision is a great step forward for the tenants” said Bob Rose, an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
The Inglewood Arms has been proposed as the site for a new residential building. Tenants and their advocates have obtained assurances from the potential developer Tricon that they would be re-housed at their current rents. The LTB’s decision re-affirms the obligation of any potential developer to respect the rights of tenants in the process.

“We have met with City of Toronto officials and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. This decision confirms we have rights as tenants and we expect our rights will be respected by the landlord and that the developer lives up to its commitment to preserve affordable housing should the building be re-developed” said Mr. Da Silva.

Another story that was featured was a report of the monthly meeting of the Regent Park Executive Directors Network Meeting

The monthly meeting of the Regent Park Executive Directors Network took place on Monday October 18th over Zoom.  The Executive Directors Network is a network comprised of Executive Directors and senior decision makers representing agencies that serve the Regent Park Neighbourhood.  The Network has been in existence since 2005.  The current chairs are Paulos Gebreyesus, Executive Director from the Regent Park Community Health Centre and Adonis Huggins, Executive Director of the Focus Media Arts Centre.  

The October 18th, ED Network meeting was chaired by Adonis Huggins.
The meeting began with Covid 19 and Vaccine Updates.  Much of the discussion related to staff participant vaccination policies that individual agencies have adopted to deal with unvaccinated staff.  
 
The next agenda item discussed was about Youth Services Collaboration led by Serena Nudel from The Neighbouhood Group (TNG).  Serena wondered about the past work of the ED Network around youth coordination and how the ED Network will support the work of youth development in the neighbourhood including the Seen collective.  The group talked about its past work and commitment to youth priorities and agreed that Serena from TNG and Greg Gary, the ED from Kiwanis Club, could lead a revitalized process building on work that has been done on the past.  
The next item was a discussion about the Social Development Plan led by Greg Gary, who is the ED Network’s representative to the SDP and the new Agency Co-chair of the SDP Stakeholders Table (taking over from Paulos and Adonis).  Greg gave the group an update on the Deep Dive that the SDP is currently engaged in.  Greg felt that some of the projects submitted was a duplication with services already offered in the community. Greg wondered how can the ED Network inform the SDP process in future. Other members felt out of touch with the SDP plan and its activities.  The group agreed that more work has to be done to communicate both the work of the ED Network to the SDP as well as the work of the SDP to the ED Network table.   

The main agenda of the ED meeting was a discussion related to revamping the group’s Terms of Reference.  Jennifer Stone from Neighbourhood Legal Services, who is re-editing the terms of reference, indicated that she felt that some of the sections could be eliminated or simplified.  It was also agreed that the terms of reference has to be aligned with the SDP. Mercendes from Dixon Hall talked about the need to build a remuneration process for a coordinator to support the work of the ED Network.  As part of the action items, the ED leads for the main sub-committee will submit description drafts.  

Adonis Huggins announced that today’s meeting was the end of his two year term as the ED Network’s Chair.  After some declined nominations, Jim Nason volunteered.  Jim will start his term in November.

The last half of hour of each ED Network is generally devoted to guests.  This meeting featured a presentation from the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association and a request for support around some of the issues that were presented.