Unknown Speaker 0:04 The door is unlocked. Unknown Speaker 0:06 So now we have a soft key. So we don't really have to insert our key into the keyhole easier for us to Unknown Speaker 0:13 get in. Unknown Speaker 0:14 So luckily I don't really have to wait long for me to go up to my unit maybe takes about less than 15 seconds. Unknown Speaker 0:38 She had to announce that she was home that she was in the living room, not because her family likes to roleplay as royalties, but because she had a guest with her, me, a stranger. Unknown Speaker 1:04 Tina's dad is very particular about who can come in and out of their home. I never got to meet him. He stayed in his room the entire time. Tina is 25 years old. She lives with her mom, dad and older brother in a two bedroom apartment in Parkdale. She has been living in this apartment unit for 19 years. Unknown Speaker 1:27 I have my own room, but my dad has his closet there. So he goes into my room just to get us things which I don't mind. Okay, nevermind, I do mine. But it's okay. As long as he knocks on the door. My brother, my dad, they sleep in the next room. So even though we kind of have like we share or we have our own rooms, everyone's things aren't those different rooms, which is I guess it's okay, like I'm used to it. Unknown Speaker 1:50 Coming home to a safe, functional and private space affects our well being. The World Health Organization or wh o describes a healthy home as a structurally sound space. It is a space that brings a sense of belonging, security and privacy. According to wh OHS recent guideline, housing and health are directly linked to each other. Unknown Speaker 2:16 We have our shower. As mentioned before, it wasn't working properly because it would make weird noises or we have to wait until the water's running. But now it's better. So you One moment. Unknown Speaker 2:36 So Unknown Speaker 2:38 it's not really new. And our toilet. No, I am not going to use it now but it is working. It looks new and instead of the little flush na we have a button just to flush or just to flush the toilet. Unknown Speaker 2:55 Tina's apartment is compact. Each appliance each furniture is arranged like a perfectly stacked Tetris game, exactly how her parents want it to be. her apartment may look neat and orderly. But dysfunction hides under the tidiness their refrigerator, oven faucet, shower and toilet, take shifts and being completely broken. Unknown Speaker 3:20 Because we're living in such an old building the water that runs through those pipes, it's a it's kind of dirty. So when we run the faucet in both the bathroom and in the kitchen, we have to run it for quite a while in order to like if you want to use the water, the fridge before that we had and the oven was owned by the apartment. But because there's no maintenance and checking the fridge if it's fine, even the oven, it just breaks down. But we don't want that we want it to work. Because if we're cooking something and all of a sudden it shuts down. Like what the heck, we have to order out again. Unknown Speaker 3:58 Tina's kitchen and washroom are not the only things under pressure in this home. Tina is also feeling the burden to provide more financially, so the family can move out of their current living condition. Unknown Speaker 4:11 That's why before I don't want to be at home because I know some of these things aren't working. So I would rather stay out and be in the mall where I know there's a working bathroom, everything's clean. I would normally go to different mall or eat and small because they're the only two moles that are close by because I'm outside or I'm away from my home. And if I am at home, I feel restricted. Because when I'm with my parents and then there are things not working, they get frustrated. And when they get frustrated, I get frustrated because who are they gonna take it out on obviously me and my brother because we're there. We're just staring at them like this. so frustrated with things that are not working. They will take it out on us and say, Oh, why can't you guys get a better job so we don't have to live here and whatnot. And I don't know, it's just being at home. Because of that. It just puts pressure on me and my brother into like, working harder so we can bring our parents out of that condition, so we can be in a better home. Unknown Speaker 5:26 The dreaded mall washroom that we all seem to avoid. The one we refuse to use and would rather wait until we get home to our own washroom. That's what Tina prefers. Unknown Speaker 5:49 Parkdale is in the middle of a very rapid and aggressive gentrification and vulnerable community members are being pushed out. But telecard poachy The MPP for Parkdale High Park describes what exactly gentrification looks like in this neighborhood. Unknown Speaker 6:12 To me what gentrification looks like, is seeing community members sort of vanish, disappear from our communities. And I say this, because we've seen so many of our community members be forced out of their homes, their apartments, places have lived for 1015, even 20 years. And because of gentrification and the skyrocketing rents, they are basically forced out of their homes. So the people that, you know, have become part of our community, people we have known for years and worked together, lived together, and many of them have been forced to leave. That, to me is one of the most difficult parts of gentrification is the impact on the people Unknown Speaker 7:03 around 90% or renters in South Parkdale? Like Tina, landlords are seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the ongoing gentrification in the area by evicting their current tenants, so they can rent out their units for double, or even triple the original price. Landlords may pressure tenants to move out by neglecting to repair or maintain the unit, or by what activists call renovation. Unknown Speaker 7:32 Using renovation as an excuse to evict tenants is renovation. Many, many landlords and this is often you know, dishonest landlords, landlords, they do not maintain people's homes and units. And they leave it they neglected to point where it reaches state of disrepair. And then, under the guise of renovating the unit, they use a loophole that exists in our laws to issue an eviction notice, or even if it's a temporary eviction notice, because they know that once the tenants are out of the unit, then they can want renovated and you know, can increase the rent to however high they want. Because there is no limit on how there's no cap on how much a renter can increase by Unknown Speaker 8:23 a report by the Advocacy Center for tenants Ontario, found an increase in rent evictions since 2015. In Toronto. Unknown Speaker 8:33 It took them about maybe a week for them to actually take action. Like our whole building just went off on this management, even my father, he was so angry, he was screaming at one of the superintendent's there. And I felt so bad for her because she really didn't know what was going on. But at the same time when you're going into like a new management at the same time, you need to know like what's going on with the building. Unknown Speaker 9:03 Tina does not know if the state of their home is motivating her or pressuring her to get out. Either way, she thinks they may need to move out for her peace of mind and for the comfort of her aging parents. Tina's family has secured a somewhat affordable rent for this apartment unit, and they are holding on to it leaving and looking for another home would mean paying a much higher rent. This also means putting up with our landlords neglect and their homes disrepair. Unknown Speaker 9:37 We really need to make sure that we have strong rent control laws so that rents don't increase above say inflation rates. Because right now, our current legislation has so many loopholes that allow landlords to increase rents so I mentioned the above guideline rent increases, where even though there is a guideline that exists landlords can apply for increases above those guidelines. And that is very difficult for many tenants because housing costs are increasing at a certain rate, but many people's wages aren't increasing at that same rate. And many, many people have budgeted a certain amount for rent. And if that goes up, over, then that means money away from food, from medicines, from maybe recreational programs for children and things like that. Unknown Speaker 10:28 For the Parkdale community, especially, there is a strong sense of the whole neighborhood as an extension of their home. Unknown Speaker 10:36 Once I'm done school, once I'm done, work, even though I'm going home to a house or like a place that doesn't have working things, it is a sigh of relief. It's because that place because I've been there for so long, it's my comfort zone. It's my safe haven. It's a place where I'm like, Okay, now I can just be myself, without just going up without being outside and just acting up a front where I just, you know, I'm like everyone else, I have to work, I have to go to school, I have to keep up with social life, but at home, it's, that's, that's the place where I can just, you know, just feel comfortable. So now, and that's the only place where I can actually talk to my family. Because once the morning hits, we're all doing our own things. Unknown Speaker 11:27 When my family moved to Canada, we ended up in Parkdale even though we know as a newcomer family, we faced a lot of challenges. That's very typical of newcomers and immigrant communities and refugees. You know, in in party, I really felt a sense of belonging. And that's because we had wonderful neighbors. There were so many great community organizations that helped you. You just got the sense that despite all the challenges, at the end of the day, things were going to be okay. And they kind of give you hope. And so now no matter where I go, and some and I did go away to Vancouver to go to university, for example. To me, I finally found a place I can call home. And to me that's Parkdale Transcribed by https://otter.ai