Toronto, ON – January 8, 2025 – A new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) finds that 67% of tenants in Toronto have been threatened with eviction. Among them, 60% were due to a landlord claiming they needed the tenant to move out so that they could use the unit for themselves or a family member (also called “own-use” evictions) or to carry out renovations (also called “renovictions”).
These findings were collected in early 2023 through a survey of 178 tenants in Toronto using a convenience sampling technique, where tenants were asked about their moving history within the previous 12-month period.
The study also collected information through semi-structured interviews with 19 housing services caseworkers, lawyers, and advocates who work directly with tenants in Toronto. The interviews revealed that many tenants moved out immediately after being threatened with eviction, instead of going through the formal eviction process through the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). These situations are known as “informal evictions” because they are not tracked by authorities when they bypass the LTB eviction process.
The study found that people with low- and fixed-incomes, younger people and newcomers are most at risk of experiencing an informal eviction. The main reasons why tenants move out after being threatened with eviction is because they are not familiar with the eviction process or faced language barriers that caused confusion about what eviction notices mean. Many tenants also did not know their legal rights or the housing services that were available that could have helped them to stay in their home.
“Evictions are a serious problem in Toronto. Nearly half of the city’s residents are renters, and many are struggling to pay rents that are increasingly unaffordable,” says Jon Paul Mathias, Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR). “Evictions are extremely stressful and contribute to negative health and housing outcomes for residents, particularly low-income and racialized communities.”
“Informal evictions are gross violations of tenants’ right to a secure and stable home. These types of evictions are only possible because of glaring policy gaps that can be easily exploited,” says Sara Beyer, Manager of Policy at CCHR. “We need our governments to take meaningful action to protect tenants from informal evictions, including by strengthening renter protections and supports, supporting tenant outreach and education, and building and preserving deeply affordable housing.”
