The white cargo van parked outside of 500 Dawes Road says “Mobile Community Office” on the side, and each time the door opens I try to peer in to see if it resembles those mobile command centres common to nearly every cop movie. A number of SWAT-team-looking officers in heavy black cargo pants and padded vests who look ready to infiltrate a meth lab or a hostage crisis — except way more relaxed — mill about on the property. Everyone looks like they’re headed into some Heavy Shit.
The Mobile Community Office is here to inspect the building for structural deficiencies, shoddy living conditions and overall landlord neglect. While this gathering of enforcement personnel may not have the urgency of of a hostage crisis, it’s no less serious. It’s day three of the city’s new initiative to enforce apartment standards throughout Toronto’s multi-residential buildings, and the inspection unit is getting ready to move in — after a press conference, of course.
From Dec. 1 through to the end of 2009, the program is scheduled to inspect at least 186 buildings in order to help preserve the city’s rental housing stock, most of which is between 25 and 40 years old. More importantly, the program aims to ensure the quality of tenants’ living conditions — or at the very least, getting their money’s worth out of their rent cheques.
While all tenants are supposed to be guaranteed a certain standard of living under provincial law — things like proper heating and hot water, adequate fire escapes, general upkeep of the building itself — ensuring that landlords do their job is not always the easiest task. Either renters aren’t aware of their rights or they’re afraid to raise issues. In the worst cases, their complaints are simply ignored. There are a number of tenant’s rights groups available to help with such situations, and the city’s Municipal Licensing and Standards has always been the place to go for filing formal complaints, but this is the first time that officials are seeking out bad landlords by bringing licensing and standards directly to the buildings.
One main goal of the program seems to be accessibility, something that ML&S is already trying to improve upon by acknowledging activist group ACORN’s request for evening and weekend inspections (you know, when most working folks are at home). As well, they’ve built an extensive website that will list all the properties to be inspected in the coming year, along with a property search engine which lists all the complaints/work orders issued at any address.
According to ML&S, people can still file complaints after the mobile office leaves, and for the rest of the year. Their office is always open and they intend to take complaints not only from the buildings they inspect but from any buildings in Toronto. There’s even a handy maintenance request form which provides a visual description, rather than having to try and explain that the bottom outlet on the west wall of the apartment only shorts out when the shower is running and the microwave is on — or something like that.
Inevitably, the program should provide an opportunity for vast improvements in the lives of some tenants. But with a team of only 10 officers (plus a collection of local area officers) and a promised attempt to respond to any complaint with face-to-face contact within five business days, the project may be opening a veritable floodgate for grievances. The fact that negligent landlords are enough of a problem to warrant such a comprehensive initiative means that there are many complaints just waiting to be filed.
And considering Toronto Community Housing Corporation, the city’s social housing arm, is often criticized for the lack of proper maintenance, the Multi-residential Apartment Buildings Regulatory Strategy will even need to play a bit of catch-up in its own back yard.
Since the program is still in its infancy, we’ll have to wait and see how these admirable intentions translate into liveable solutions.