Amid rising rental costs, a lack of available units, renovictions, and growing tenant frustration, a new grassroots community group has been established in Peterborough to educate and support renters.
“I wish I had had a community to guide me in the right way and give me some information,” Lydia Lambert, founder of the Peterborough Tenant Union (PTU), told kawarthaNOW in a recent interview about her motivations for organizing the group.
Lambert said she had been experiencing a number of issues within her home and she was unsure of where to turn for support.
Concerns raised about repair delays, lack of communication, health and safety issues
When Lambert began sharing her experiences and questions on social media, she found others facing the same challenges in rental properties across the city. According to a housing needs assessment completed for the City of Peterborough in 2023, over 40 per cent of Peterborough residents were living in rental accommodation.
“From my own experience I realized that I can’t be the only one who feels this way,” said Lambert.
Some of the issues that have been raised thus far include significant delays for essential repairs, a lack of clear communication from landlords and property management companies, and health and safety concerns such as bug infestations.
Similarly, on the popular r/Peterborough Reddit page, there are numerous posts from renters detailing the challenges they have faced in local properties.
“Cockroaches and bedbugs,” says one post.
“The owner kind of sucks … They’ll half-ass any fixes,” says another.
“Cheap rent but you’ll have ptsd from all the bugs crawling on you, not to mention the landlords are awful,” another reads.
Tenants fear speaking up will result in retribution
Lambert said that when confronted by these types of issues, many people are uncertain on how to manage them, especially when there is a lack of understanding of tenant rights in such situations.
In Ontario, the Residential Tenancies Act (2006) establishes the responsibilities and rights of both tenants and landlords. Despite these regulations, for many the fear of retribution for speaking up is too high to justify challenging their landlord.
“I found when I would talk to other tenants that they were often just as in the dark,” said Lambert. “They wonder, ‘How do we go about these situations? Are we going to get retaliated against if we bring something up?'”
One of the aims of the PTU is to foster positive relationships between tenants and landlords, Lambert said, by providing information and advice to landlords on their rights and responsibilities.
“We want to keep a good relationship and build something that everybody can walk away from feeling like things are fair and safe and good and healthy,” Lambert said.
Tenant unions forming across Canada
In addition to information sharing and providing support to renters, Lambert said that she wants the PTU to be active in creating positive change for tenants in Peterborough by advocating for systemic change.
“We would like to be a community that gets together and advocates for things to be better,” said Lambert.
Across Canada, groups like ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) have successfully advocated for tenant rights on issues such as rent controls, maintenance and repair costs being passed down to tenants, and protection from renovictions.
In Toronto, the city-wide Toronto Tenant Union was officially established on April 18 as a collaboration between York South-Weston Tenant Union (YSWTU) and Climate Justice Toronto. YSWTU was established in 2017 and has been involved in advocacy work, including letter-writing campaigns and rental strikes.
Lambert is looking to the success of these organizations with hope for tenant rights in Peterborough.
“It’s really encouraging that other communities are doing this and moving forward and advocating for things and seeing results,” said Lambert.
Group is holding its first meeting on August 2
Lambert said that at this stage the group is looking for feedback from the community about the issues they are facing, the support they need, and how the union should develop.
“The direction we take and where we go with this is really going to be geared to what we find is brought up a lot in our group,” she said.
PTU will be hosting its first virtual meeting on August 2 at 4 p.m., with details to be provided.
For updates and more information about PTU, follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit.
