Tenant Evictions

This report is an observational summary of the Landlord and Tenant Board, located at 3 Robert Speck Parkway Suite 520 Mississauga, Ontario L47 2G5. Throughout Tuesday, January 26th, 2016 and Wednesday, January 27th, 2016, the Landlord and Tenant Board held many different cases.

Rent control first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s as a way of dealing with exorbitant rent prices brought about by wartime housing emergencies and tight housing markets. During this time, rent control was handled by the federal government. In the late 1940’s, the federal rent control system was gradually scaled back

6902 families have been evicted from San Francisco in 22 years. This isn’t counting the hundreds of other cities across California, and the number of families is only rising, and the Ellis Act is to blame. Established in 1985, is a California law that allows landlords to evict tenants when they are close to becoming bankrupt, or are currently bankrupt. However, the landlords who utilize the law are often in neither situation. Due to the growing controversy, Senator Mark Leno has proposed an amendment to the original act in order to combat the blatant greed that amassed over 30 years. Despite its flaws, the Leno Amendment is the right step for California, as it will not only please the landlords, but their tenants as well.

Whether under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (FHA), which makes it illegal to discriminate in housing on the basis of an individual’s handicap, Ms. Mary Land, the widowed owner, manager, and landlord¬¬ of a historic building with Tiffany stained glass transforms, extinct pinewood flooring, and mahogany woodwork¬, violated the FHA by refusing to rent an apartment to Mr. Jim Rent, a potential paraplegic tenant with acute transverse myelitis (ATM), when enforcing a first-come first-served parking policy, where there are only three allocated spots available to the nine apartments, and a no-pets policy, where Ms. Land had an allergy and a tenant potential could go into anaphylactic shock, where Mr. Rent required access to a dedicated parking spot for his specially-equipped van, which allowed him to use his mobility device the iBOT™, the use of a medical alert response companion dog (MARC dog), that was certified, prescribed, and trained to assist Mr. Rent with his daily routine, and needed to make structural modifications to the apartment and bathroom, in order to insure his mobility and safety in the apartment, even though Mr. Rent, six months prior, had a history of leaving items on the stove, causing fire alarms to go off notifying the fire department, and leaving water running in the bathtub, which lead to several floods of his apartment requiring new flooring and carpeting.

effect, because they know that it is likely that landlords will not be able to

Structural factors, such as the availability of low-income housing exacerbate on the already burdening individual factors. The rise in homelessness is mostly due to the decrease in the number of low-cost housing units. Nowadays, families were struggling to consolidate their current situations because they are unable to afford the housing need (Thomas Betar, 2012). Inadequate of affordable housing is one of the contributors of homelessness (Ghee WY, Omar RNBR, 2015). A large number of low-income people have been forced to move. Nearly 6,000 people older people who are aged 60 or above in Victoria need to pay the rent of more than thirty percent of their salary (Ronaldson, 1999). The shortage of affordable and available housing straightforwardly harmonizes to levels of homelessness and inadequacy income and insufficient of

Living in communities that are run down, neglected and forgotten takes a toll on all members of the community. This is especially true when residents witness new properties being erected around the city as their own neighborhoods are deemed “ghettos” and not receiving the investment necessary for improvements. Many of the low income housing that is available to city residents aren’t the most desirable properties as they may have structural deficiencies, lead paint, rats and roaches running amuck. Many older properties also do not have adequately functioning heat or hot water availability. The housing projects also do not have air conditioning. On hot days, having no cool break in addition to all the other negative social factors, this can be a deadly combination that may perpetuate frustrations and ultimately lead to violence.

Eviction, while it hurts the family the most, also takes a toll on the communities in the form of ingroups and outgroups. In his book, Evicted, Matthew Desmond says, “Eviction even affects the communities that displaced families leave behind. Neighbors who cooperate with and trust one another can make their streets safer and more prosperous”(p. 298). To make those streets safer and to develop trust and a sense of security, in-groups are created by those in the neighborhood who talk to each other often and form a friendly relationship. Eviction can break that relationship and sometimes result in the removal of the security and trust in the ingroups. It also creates worry about what the next renter will be like. When that renter moves in they

It was a law which lacked teeth--rather than holding municipalities responsible for ensuring housing development, it only measured the compliance of each city’s Housing Element to state housing allocations (Ramsey-Musolf para. 2-4).

The excerpt we read from the book Evicted moved many people. It provoked powerful emotions and caused many to rethink they their feelings about the tails of told by far too many. Evicted the story of families on both side of the housing epidemic focusing on renters and landlords. I will be comparing my own views and using my experiences to gain a deeper understanding of: the people effected; the impact it has on families of both sides; the lesser and the lessee; the reason we are in this crises; and what can be done. Evicted is no doubt a piece that can stir the emotions of everyone who choices to sit down and read it.

The issue of homelessness in regard to shelter in Australia has been prevalent for an extended period of time in the 21st century. Homelessness is the situation in which individuals are unable to attain a permanent and adequate quality of shelter. Shelter is a human right as stated under article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifies “Housing” as part of the standard of living required for an individual to maintain their wellbeing. Australia’s law specifies no legal right to shelter, however as a party of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Australian government must recognise that all individuals should be entitled to “an adequate standard of living for themself and their family”, where one criteria is “adequate housing” as stated in article 11. It is imperative that in order to fulfil both Australia’s obligation to uphold human rights and maintain social cohesion within society both legal and non-legal responses are effective in dealing with both the causes and effects of homelessness.

Cowan D & Marsh. 2001. A Two Steps Forward: Housing Policy into the New Millennium. Policy Press

First, what is PTSD? PTSD is a mental illness. It stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is developed after a traumatic event. It makes the sufferer feel very nervous and as if they are still in danger. They think they are still reliving the traumatic event they suffered through. Everyone who suffers from it has different experiences.

Those who have experienced evictions are forced into multiple logistical housing situations. Due to the stigma associated with a court-ordered eviction, landlords would often engage in rent screenings to ensure that potential renters not only have a “clean” criminal record but also an eviction “free” record (Desmond, 2016). As Desmond discusses (2016), the landlord’s double barrier screening is shielding their neighborhood from criminality and poverty. Correspondingly, some landlords knowingly do not engage in these screening practices as a “business model” to potentially profit off of the poor (Desmond, 2012a). As the person who is evicted fall into the bottom of the rental market, the housing fate of the evicted

In today’s society, it may seem that gentrification can eliminate poverty and increase neighborhood opportunities. Low-income residents and property owners will be the first to be altered by gentrification. In an email to the editor at the Atlantic, Freeman, the director of the Urban Planning program at Columbia states “ Gentrification brings new amenities and services that benefit not only the newcomers but long term residents too. Full service