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Michael Klein, a major landlord in Ontario, is currently linked to 21 buildings that are being subject to no-fault mass evictions, under the pretext of renovations, or so-called ‘renovictions’. These buildings are located in 7 major Ontario cities: Toronto, Hamilton, London, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph, and Lindsay. 680 homes are affected by these expulsions, representing 1,750 low-income tenants.
“Some people are quite anxious. A few people left the building, but others are adamant about resisting the bad faith eviction process. Some people have no other choice, given that we're in a housing crisis and the paltry $3000 cheque that's offered isn't even enough to cover first and last month's rent anywhere,” Robert Elder, tenant organizer, tells The North Star.
Tenants are actively organizing in 13 of the 21 buildings. On October 2, people rallied for a day of action with their neighbours to protest the renovictions. Holding signs stating “We are not moving” and “Homes over Profit”, the tenants were sending a loud message. On the same day, ACORN tenant union released a report describing Klein and his “predatory tactics”.
As of earlier this month, more people continued to receive eviction notices from Klein and his companies. Many of the tenants facing eviction are low income, and are instantly faced with the loss of relatively affordable housing.
The majority of these tenants are either seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants, low waged workers and families. The ACORN report states that in the majority of the cases, tenants were informed that the new owner of their building is a numbered company or the name is simply the buildings' address incorporated.
ACORN states that “Michael Klein has been able to hide behind multiple numbered companies and new businesses he creates with varying head office addresses listed on corporate records.”
The practice of owning many buildings but dividing them into individual numbered companies is common in Canada. It is generally used to save on taxes and, in doing so, reduces the clarity of the ownership relationship to the public's eye.
Moreover, the ability of a landlord to own so many properties and exercise such considerable control over that many people raises serious alarm. The tenants organization says that “no one seems to know for certain [who is Micheal Klein], which is concerning for the public given how much affordable housing he has destroyed, but primarily for his tenants”.