Scarborough tenants worry they could be out in the cold with no new rental deal
CBC
The city is trying to reassure a worried group of tenants in a Scarborough low-rise they they will not be homeless when a developer demolishes their building in a year or so.
But without any written deal laying out where they'll be able to move to, or how much rent they'll be asked to pay, those reassurances seem to be falling on deaf ears.
"It's very scary," Monika Little, a pensioner in her 70s who's lived in her one-bedroom apartment for 23 years, told CBC Toronto earlier this week.
"I have a hard time sleeping."
In 2020, Altree Developments bought Lenmore Court, a three-building low-rise complex between 1625 and 1641 Kingston Rd., in Scarborough's Birchcliff neighbourhood. Altree's rezoning application eventually went to the Ontario Land Tribunal, which approved most of the developer's plans for the site, according to tenant advocate Anna Dewar Gully.
The plan is now back in the hands of city staff. And last week, Scarborough community council approved Altree's application for a demolition permit. That needs final approval from city council, which meets next week, but residents say with a wrecking ball imminent, they want some assurances from the city that they won't be left out in the cold.
Both Altree and Coun. Gary Crawford, who represents Ward 20, Scarborough Southwest on Toronto city council, have pledged that the tenants will be looked after.
But Gully says what's most worrisome to the tenants is that they've been given nothing specific in writing that explains how they'll be protected.
"We're still trying to figure out what exactly is the deal that they're being offered," Gully said.
"And the processes that we've gone through both with the City of Toronto initially and then with the Ontario Land Tribunal have left us kind of scratching our heads trying to understand how exactly they're protected and by what documents and by whom."
Crawford says he and city staff will be sitting down with each of the tenants individually in the months to come to find out exactly what their needs are. He says it will be at least a year before the building is actually demolished — plenty of time to make sure the residents are housed.
Once the new development is completed, the tenants will be given new units, according to an email to CBC Toronto from Altree.
"Each of these new rental units which eligible tenants can return to will be equipped with temperature-controlled heating and air conditioning, in-suite laundry, full set of appliances, as well as access to indoor and outdoor amenity," the Altree email reads.
"The features and finishes that these rental replacement units are going to be equipped with" will be an upgrade over the units the tenants are now living in, the company says.
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