{"id":61127,"date":"2020-01-29T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=61127"},"modified":"2020-01-29T11:42:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T16:42:36","slug":"we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/","title":{"rendered":"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren’t we talking about rent control?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the mad-dash scramble to call out the culprits and cheer on the saviours in Toronto\u2019s ever-accelerating housing crisis, there\u2019s been an outpouring of emergent thinking about what a solution could look like. Yet one fix is conspicuous by its absence: rent control that actually works for tenants.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: the new ideas are welcome and important, but are almost all on the supply side of the housing equation. They run the gamut from conventional (developing rental and subsidized rental housing on public land<\/a>) to the experimental (density transition zones<\/a>, missing-middle-style intensification along collector roads<\/a> and innovative approaches to co-housing<\/a>).<\/p>\n

More examples: a west end developer with a massive project rising on a former school board site last fall agreed<\/a>, under community pressure, to underwrite an affordable housing land trust with two non-profit agencies. Closer to the core, the feds will pour $200 million<\/a> from the National Housing Strategy into securing affordable rental units in Westbank\u2019s giant Honest Ed\u2019s project.<\/p>\n

The latest addition to this list: so-called \u201cworker\u2019s housing,\u201d which targets so-called \u201ckey workers\u201d \u2013 teachers, nurses, social workers, trades people, etc. \u2013 who collectively get the city from one day to the next, but are increasingly priced out because their incomes bear little relation to even average rents or mortgage costs.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Toronto Region Board of Trade, in collaboration with Woodgreen Community Services<\/a>, launched the first in a series of three studies about worker\u2019s housing. As the report<\/a> notes, its focus is on those people earning between $40,000 to $65,000 a year \u2013 too much for subsidies, but well below the income required to live in Toronto without seriously stressing a household budget.<\/p>\n

With apartment turnover falling from 14.5% to 11% between 2017 and 2018 and vacancies hovering in the 1% range, the TRBOT\/Woodgreen study makes a strong case for better solutions targeting a broad swath of the city\u2019s labour force.<\/p>\n

The study even notes the damage inflicted on the economy: \u201cHigh rents and house prices lead to unrealized spending, when money that could have been spent on economic activities is instead covering housing costs,\u201d it notes. \u201cA 2016 report estimated that if New York City rents had increased<\/em> at inflation<\/em> since 2010, $7 billion more could have been spent in the broader economy (emphasis added).\u201d<\/p>\n

Okay, so let\u2019s talk about rent, which doesn\u2019t really happen in the TRBOT\/Woodgreen study, nor the city\u2019s new 2020-2030 housing plan or most of what else passes for housing policy discourse these days.<\/p>\n

In Toronto, average rents are forecast to jump by almost 7% this year<\/a> \u2013 a rate that\u2019s about three times higher than inflation was in 2019. Provincial rent laws<\/a>, which the Ford government relaxed, ostensibly allow for 2.2% increases for 2020 for existing tenants. But of course those caps don\u2019t tell the whole story, because landlords can re-set their rates whenever a tenant moves, or after a renovation. The tens of thousands of people renting condos are even more vulnerable.<\/p>\n

With large international investors like Akelius<\/a> racing to acquire apartment buildings, drive out long-standing tenants and hike rents, the reality is that the number of units now subject to speculative, rent-escalating pressures far exceeds new supply coming on the market due to government programs or planning rules.<\/p>\n

In B.C., some recent policy measures \u2013 vacancy taxes<\/a> and foreign buyers taxes<\/a> — have cooled the demand side of the market, and both of these will be soon be part of the equation in Toronto (Ontario passed a foreign buyers tax in 2017).<\/p>\n

A good start, but what about effective rent control as an adjunct to such measures?<\/p>\n

The Ford government, of course, is running hard in the opposite direction. Toronto council won\u2019t touch that topic with a barge pole, nor will most of the mainstream advocacy and civic society groups commenting on the housing crisis. What\u2019s clear is that the dubious neo-conservative canards about the evils of rent control remain a point of substantial consensus in the minds of our policy makers, even as they shout from the rooftops about our utterly unsustainable housing woes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that other jurisdictions have had far more courage when it comes to re-tooling the landlord-tenant relationship as a means of addressing runaway housing costs in high-growth urban centres.<\/p>\n

For instance, New York State last year toughened up its rent control laws<\/a>, with new conditions on deposits, evictions and rent caps — a suite of reforms that go beyond recent rent control measures passed in Oregon and several other states, according to the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Were landlord and developer groups upset? Yes. Did the sky fall? No.<\/p>\n

Okay, did the real estate market crater? Interestingly, some business media stories<\/a> noted that Albany\u2019s reforms caused apartment building sales to \u201cplunge,\u201d as if such an outcome was a negative, and not an undeniably positive development. After all, the global financialization of the apartment building sector only<\/em> benefits the real estate investment trusts and private equity funds that thrive on that kind of churn. By all means, let\u2019s take the energy out of that market.<\/p>\n

Beyond North America, the most high-profile rent control drama has been playing out in Berlin, where the local government passed a controversial law last year to freeze rents for five years; the legislation comes into effect this month.<\/p>\n

While the law<\/a> exempts buildings constructed since 2014, Berlin\u2019s policy will reach tens of thousands of people living in an increasingly expensive city where about four in five residents rent. Notably, Berlin\u2019s policy closes the loophole that allows landlords here and elsewhere to renovict and hike leases above inflation.<\/p>\n

Berlin\u2019s gambit has been met with legal<\/a> and constitutional challenges<\/a>. The Financial Times<\/a><\/em> recently reported that the freeze \u201cshakes the foundations\u201d of the city\u2019s construction and development sector. \u201cIt\u2019s an absolute disaster,\u201d the managing director of a Berlin roofing company told the paper. \u201cI\u2019ve lost \u20ac4.5 million in orders. It\u2019s as if someone\u2019s just turned out the lights.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be a genius to surmise that even moderate\/progressive pols in a development-besotted city like Toronto would recoil at the prospect of doing anything similar that might frighten the development industry\u2019s horses.<\/p>\n

And in the event, it\u2019s not like Toronto council has the gumption, much less the jurisdiction, to follow Berlin\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

But if you step way back and try to tune out the development\/property management industry\u2019s complaints about any kind of constraint on their profit-making rights, one point remains crystal clear: that cities, and therefore demand for housing, will continue to grow rapidly in the years to come. The market is not<\/em> like the 1960s and 1970s, when the suburban exodus and general anti-city sentiment likely were doing as much to dampen investor interest in apartments as rent control laws.<\/p>\n

The point is that in a period of constrained government spending, sky-high land prices and untenable housing shortages, a little demand side re-balancing isn\u2019t going to scare away investment capital. But what tougher rent control laws will do is provide broader benefits to key workers, low-income families and urban economies that are now losing billions due to the greed of the international property sector.<\/p>\n

Like politicians in Berlin and New York, we need to be talking about it, now.<\/p>\n

photo by Ian Muttoo<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the mad-dash scramble to call out the culprits and cheer on the saviours in Toronto\u2019s ever-accelerating housing crisis, there\u2019s been an outpouring of emergent thinking about what a solution could look like. Yet one fix is conspicuous by its absence: rent control that actually works for tenants. Don\u2019t get me wrong: the new ideasContinue reading “We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren’t we talking about rent control?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":61132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWe have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren't we talking about rent control? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren't we talking about rent control? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the mad-dash scramble to call out the culprits and cheer on the saviours in Toronto\u2019s ever-accelerating housing crisis, there\u2019s been an outpouring of emergent thinking about what a solution could look like. Yet one fix is conspicuous by its absence: rent control that actually works for tenants. Don\u2019t get me wrong: the new ideasContinue reading "We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren’t we talking about rent control?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-29T16:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-29T16:42:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1363\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/\",\"name\":\"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren't we talking about rent control? - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-29T16:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-29T16:42:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1363},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren’t we talking about rent control?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\",\"name\":\"John Lorinc\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Lorinc\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren't we talking about rent control? - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren't we talking about rent control? - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"In the mad-dash scramble to call out the culprits and cheer on the saviours in Toronto\u2019s ever-accelerating housing crisis, there\u2019s been an outpouring of emergent thinking about what a solution could look like. Yet one fix is conspicuous by its absence: rent control that actually works for tenants. Don\u2019t get me wrong: the new ideasContinue reading \"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren’t we talking about rent control?\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2020-01-29T16:00:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-29T16:42:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1363,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Lorinc","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Lorinc","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/","name":"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren't we talking about rent control? - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg","datePublished":"2020-01-29T16:00:07+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-29T16:42:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/For-rent-ian-muttoo.jpg","width":2048,"height":1363},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/01\/29\/we-have-a-housing-crisis-why-arent-we-talking-about-rent-control\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We have a housing crisis\u2014 why aren’t we talking about rent control?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e","name":"John Lorinc","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"John Lorinc"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61127"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61136,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61127\/revisions\/61136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}