Tenants united at City Hall on Monday raising their concerns regarding Toronto’s growing rate of demovictions.
A demoviction occurs when a landlord evicts tenants to demolish a building for new construction.
Megan Kee, an organizer with No Demovictions, a tenant collective that advocates against profit-driven demolitions, created an interactive map showing buildings undergoing demovictions.
The latest updated dataset shows there are 76 occupied buildings throughout Toronto set to be demolished in the coming years.
Rebecca Gimmi, one of the founders of No Demovictions and works alongside Kee, said she is concerned over the rising number of demovictions taking place within the city.
Megan Kee holds a "housing is a human right pillow" during a speech at a demovictions demonstration at Toronto City Hall on Oct. 2. Photo credit: Jeferson Quiros-Vargas
They established the group with her neighbours last year after her own building was met with the same fate.
“We started on April Fool’s Day because housing is no joke,” she said.
Gimmi said there were 200 people in her building being demovicted, and as they began organizing they realized that for the 76 buildings, it would affect around 10,000 people.
“That’s only this year,” Gimmi said.
Gimmi moved into her apartment after years of living at housing rentals and having to leave because the landlords would choose to house flip.
“We are not rich, we’re not poor, we are hard workers,” said Marcella Thompson, a No Demovictions advocate.
Thompson said she never thought of herself as an activist until she realized what was happening to her home.
“We are going to lose our homes if we don’t speak up,” she said.
“When I look around and I’m thinking, ‘Oh God, I’m going to have to pack this up, but where are we going to go?’” Thompson said.
Marcella Thompson gives a motivated speech to a crowd during the demovictions protests in Toronto on Oct. 2. Photo credit: Jeferson Quiros-Vargas
She said in the worst-case scenario, she would have to move in with her children but it was her last resort.
“I am independent, and this is where my independence lies, in my home,” she said.
Compensation packages are offered to tenants who are demovicted but Thompson said the money doesn’t compensate for being moved from their homes.
“I’ve been there for 17 years,” she said. “I like my place. I like my neighbours. It’s my home.”
Patricia Johnston is a senior resident of 145 St.George St., another building facing demovictions. She has lived there for 17 years, but said she has been treated as a “second-class citizen” recently.
“It’s all about profit,” she said.
She said she could move in with a friend in Mallorytown, near Brockville, Ont., if she is demovicted, but this would mean moving to a home about three hours away.
Johnston suffers from macular degeneration which requires her to take anti-VEGF shots from her doctor every month.
“I have macular and go once a month to have shots. That means that I have to come in all the way from Mallorytown, and take a train to have it done,” she said
She said if she were to move locations she is unsure of how her medical treatment would resume.