This senior's rent increased by 17 per cent this year. Now, she's looking for answers
CBC
When Yvonne Guy came home from work one day in late September, she noticed a letter had been slipped under the door while she was away.
That letter informed her that her rent was to increase by 17 per cent in the new year, and that such a move was allowed as non-profit housing corporations are partially exempt from the law that limits rent increases in Ontario.
"It was a shock," said Guy.
Now, she pays $125 more per month for her one-bedroom at Place Champlain non-profit housing corporation for seniors in Azilda.
Guy says it's tricky to absorb the increase as she and many of her neighbours rely on a limited Old Age Security pension to get by.
Looking at her finances, she's not sure how she's going to manage it.
"It's not that bad yet, but in March, I don't think I'll be able to pay the rent," she said, adding that she does work two hours a day despite being well past the age of retirement.
Guy says it would be an easier pill to swallow if she understood why the increase was necessary, but she adds that she and other tenants didn't get the answers they were seeking from those who manage the building over the past few months.
"They just told us they had to increase the rent because things are going up and there's a lot of work to be done here," she said.
In the letter warning tenants of the increase, the president of the board of directors, Raymond Fournier, explained they are expecting municipal funding "to be extremely reduced" when their agreement with the City of Greater Sudbury is renegotiated in 2026.
But the City's Manager of Housing Services, Cindi Briscoe, says that's a premature conclusion.
"I'm not quite sure where that statement is coming from because we haven't even begun the negotiations," she said.
Briscoe adds the City does not own, manage or operate the building. Rather, they subsidize the rents of about half of the tenants who have applied for geared-to-income housing.
She says the City has encouraged Place Champlain's board many times to meet with the tenants and be transparent about the building's finances.
While his party has made a cause célèbre out of its battle with the Speaker, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has periodically waxed poetic about the House of Commons — suggesting that its green upholstery is meant to symbolize the fields of the English countryside where commoners met centuries ago before the signing of the Magna Carta.