A SUCCESS STORY

The Parkdale Tenants Association spent most of the winter of 2003-04 rating buildings, knocking on doors, talking to tenants, taking pictures of bad conditions. We rated 96 Jameson, 110 Jameson, 109 Jameson, 81 Wilson Park Rd., 147 Spencer, 1465 King Street West, 1475 King Street West, and 6 Triller, just to mention a few. Some barely passed our modest standards -- none impressed us as being in great shape.

But . . . some buildings were awful.

There the tenants felt abandoned and welcomed us with open arms.

At 115 Dowling, things were so bad in November 2003 that there was a mass exodus of tenants. Armies of cockroaches were marching all over as if they owned the building. This building actually belongs to the Wynn Group, but at the time it seemed that they had abandoned it to the roaches and the mice. Except they kept on collecting the rent of course. Ahh, a minor detail.

Filthy hallways, falling plaster, leaks and drafts, holes in ceilings, loose wiring, broken windows. And the garage was collapsing at one end with the steel rebars falling through the ceiling.

You can still see pictures of 115 Dowling here.

That was then.

The PTA did a press conference, we went to the media, the building was featured on 'Goldhawk Live'. And CBC TV.

"How in the world could this happen in Toronto!" Goldhawk exclaimed on his live Television show (in an episode called 'Landlords from Hell').

That was in December.

Now . . . the hallways have been cleaned up, the holes and the plaster were repaired, the cockroaches were fumigated, the building was painted on the outside and extensive repair work is now going on in the garage. There are still problems in this building but things are improving.

There can be no doubt that this happened because of the work done by the PTA.

Did the City finally take notice that tenants at 115 Dowling were living in a hell hole?

You bet.

NOT A SUCCESS STORY

In preparation for its GOLDEN COCKROACH AWARD, the Parkdale Tenants Association revisited 40 and 60 Tyndall Avenue recently.

We got a taste of Hell.

What a disgusting mess for tenants to endure in this hellhole.

Armies of roaches, mice, no hot water for weeks on end and no heat for days in the winter. Filthy garages, holes in the ceilings in the apartments and the hallways, falling plaster, leaking faucets, broken windows, stinking elevators, filthy carpets in the hallways, showers and toilets that don't work, water leaking through ceilings and walls throughout these buildings (especially at 60 Tyndall Ave.).

We talked to tenants, we visited apartments, we documented the mess, we took digital pictures and a video (coming soon to this website).

What in the world is going on here?

One and a half years ago we rated these buildings.

In the summer of 2003 we publicly condemned these buildings with a lot of publicity. At the same time we went with the tenants and supporters to the City's Licensing and Inspections Department (those are the folks who are supposed to ensure that apartments are up to standard). The manager there showed us a thick file and said they were ". . . working on the problem . . .".

That was on July 9, 2003.

More than one year later and things have gotten worse.

Some tenants got discouraged and moved out, others are planning to move.

Many tenants are at their wits' end and feel abandoned by everybody.

They complained to the super. They complained to the landlord. They compained to the City.

Inspectors come and go, repair people come and look at the problem and . . .don't come back. Nothing happens!

Some tenants tried their luck the legal way by filing applications before the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal. While some had limited success, obviously conditions haven't improved overall.

Is this how the Law is enforced in Ontario?

We truly believe that these buildings are a crying violation of both Ontario Landlord and Tenant law (the Tenant Protection Act) and the Toronto Municipal Code's PROPERTY STANDARDS. Yet the landlord -- Tobis Investments -- acted as if we, the Parkdale Tenants Association, were intruding for documenting these obvious and disgusting violations of Health and Safety standards (as guests of the tenants).

We are documenting these conditions carefully on this website and making sure every City Councillor gets a a copy, together with the GOLDEN WEASEL AWARD -- for weaseling out of their promises and obligations.

We are also documenting another bad building which we condemned in May of 2003.

At 165 Jameson (owned by the Wynn group) things are rapidly deteriorating again to the point where conditions are comparable to those just described at 60 and 40 Tyndall.

we took digital photos of 165 Jameson, which are available here. Stay tuned for a video of 165 Jameson, soon to be released on this website.

Is this getting depressing?