The President of the Near North Landlord's Association says Northern Ontario landlords will have a stronger voice if they all work together.
"We’re finding constant intrusion into new legislation coming out, we now have these government lease forms. We’re getting restriction after restriction provincially under the Residential Tenancy Act. We’re finding more and more people relying on the funding agencies," said John Wilson.
Wilson led a meeting with approximately 150 people Wednesday night, with the primary objective to rejuvenate the association after years of remaining dormant. He told the crowd, what they are experiencing is not unique.
"All areas up here are experiencing the same difficulties. All our laws seem to be made in the GTA, and they fit GTA issues, not northern issues. We have huge issues with mental health and addiction. We also have a high unemployment rate here, higher than most areas. We don't have a lot of high paying jobs here, they've disappeared," said Wilson.
"We talk about affordability as well. Why do I have to charge $900 for a two bedroom apartment in a middle market type of unit? My property tax, my electricity costs, my maintenance costs, my fuel, my operating expenses, my insurance is up. Everything has gone crazy and we’re subject to rent control. So this year we can raise the rent roughly 1.6 % but our costs have probably gone up five or six percent. So we continually fall further behind.”
Wilson says landlords are constantly facing new challenges.
"We’re having a decrease in call response time with the North Bay Police Service and there’s a myriad of things coming out of the woodwork now. We’re finding ourselves really pressed against the wall. So it is now time for us to speak as an association and speak as one voice, not just lone voices in the dark.”
Guest speaker, North Bay Police Services Chief Shawn Devine addressed the issue of response times by explaining that law enforcement has changed over the last 15 years. Officers now respond to as many as 300 mental health calls a month.
He used the example of a call from a landlord about drug use going on in the lobby of his building. The Chief explained that at the same time officers were dealing with a suicidal person, two mental health issues and a burglary in progress. Devine says it isn't a matter of not being interested, it is being able to do it with the manpower available. He advised landlords to conduct "proper checks" on potential tenants.
Also in the audience were representatives of local agencies which provide housing supports to their clients.
“They’re here to start to promote a more cohesive and friendly relationship between the agencies and the landlords. They’re becoming involved in so many of our properties now because of the changing demographics of our renters, that we’re seeing them at probably eight out of 10 rentals,” said Wilson.
City Councillor Mark King, chair of District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board, told the group he fully supports their objectives.
"I see the difficulties landlords are facing with respect to escalating costs, whether it's taxes or water, all of those fixed costs that they're troubled with. And then at the same token, they're caught in an issue where often they can't be reimbursed the rent that they've lost because of a particular tenant. I've really encouraged John (Wilson) to move ahead with this," said King.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Nipissing Regional Branch currently works with 33 private landlords on transitional and permanent housing opportunities for its clients.
Executive Director Jenny Leblond said a number of her staff and staff from other agencies are currently receiving training through the RentStart program.
"They are being trained to be able to teach our tenants, to be better tenants, to work on better collaborations between the tenant, the landlord, and the community services. Just overall trying to ease the pressures that organizations, and the landlords and the tenants are feeling.," said Leblond.
The end goal is to provide clients with the tools needed to reduce evictions and damages and increase housing stability.
"It will keep everybody on the same page. We're the first northern community to bring in RentSmart."
Lana Mitchell, Executive Director for Low Income People Involvement of Nipissing, expressed that it would be 'ridiculous' for landlords and the different agencies not to work together on a solution.
"We bought our building downtown and we have three tenants. Until you see both sides of the fence, it's really hard not to be biased one way or another. So we have to be open and honest. There are rotten landlords and there are really, really rotten tenants out there, so we have to start working together. I have to be there when they have a problem with a tenant I asked them to take in. It's sad because the stuff that happens that's bad, paints everyone with the same brush," said Mitchell.
"All agencies need to be more honest about what our barriers might be. We need to accept the fact that there are certain people that just can't be housed and until we find a comfortable, politically correct way of doing that, we're going to keep having some of these huge problems. We need to support landlords. Some of them deal with horrific stuff. We've closed institutions, we took away some of the supports people had, and now we're dealing with all the repercussions. and until we accept that and the addictions issues we have, I don't know what's going to happen. We need to support landlords."
Barbara Colombe says plans are in the works to create an association in her community of West Nipissing.
"We're going to reactivate our Sturgeon Falls one. We've been dormant for a couple of years, so reactivating it and joining the North Bay one also. We'll have great access to what's going on. You never know who has the same problems," said Colombe.
"We have problems with tenants not paying their rent, tenants leaving without paying their rent, and property damage. With this new landlords association, we'll have strength in numbers. We'll have a strong voice."
Association members will meet again in June.
“Each of the meetings will have an agency that will really explain in detail what they do and how they fit with us, We will have a presentation from the fire department dealing with loss prevention and the fire department’s approach to that,” said Wilson.
