This is Parkdale

In the summer of 2017, in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, over 300 tenants living across 12 apartment buildings went on rent strike to protest a wave of rent increases that would have displaced members of their community. Through months of organizing and a series of escalating actions, working-class people took on the biggest corporate landlord in their neighbourhood... and won. In an age where gentrification is rapidly transforming the nature and demographics of working-class neighbourhoods in cities across the world, pushing out poorer tenants, people on fixed incomes, immigrant communities and other long-term residents, the story of the Parkdale rent strike offers an important and practical lesson on how we can organize with our neighbours to fight back.

Produced in association with Parkdale Organize! - http://www.parkdaleorganize.ca

I'm in Parkdale here they're threatening to

withhold their rent starting tomorrow.

Residents living at this building

here near King and Dufferin say they

shouldn't be forced to pay more rent.

They, along with tenants at other

buildings owned by the same management

company say they're going on a rent

strike. It could be the biggest one

Parkdale has ever seen.

Hundreds of residents in Parkdale have

refused to pay rent fighting back

against rent increases in their

neighborhood now tonight they plan to

take their action to the next level they

are now planning to expand by doubling

the number of buildings participating in

the rent strike from six to twelve next

month the rent strike here in Parkdale

hit a new level today as residents set

their sights on the decision maker this

storm the hallways of the truck you know

demanding the property manager met back

scrapped the above guideline rent

increases for the entire neighborhood

the two sides are now sitting down to

talk and could be close to an agreement

for these tenants getting to sit across

the table from corporate giants is

vindicating after months of fear and

criticism over their tactics what once

seems like an impossible task has now

empowered an entire community they hope

others across the city can see them as

an example that no corporation is too

big to take on one of the reasons why I

picked Parkdale as a neighborhood

because there was a great community

aspect so it just kind of feels less

like you're alone in a big city there's

quite a few people that I see Brian our

bikes taking their kids to school

was just a very welcoming community and

I really enjoy that when I first moved

here I was a little bit afraid cuz

Parkdale has a bad rep but I soon

learned that it's one of the safest

neighborhoods in this city

you know I like the fact that Parkdale

is sort of close to everything so you

know we got the gardener right here so

it's easy access to get onto the

freeways and highways but yet we're

still in the heart of downtown you know

downtown is really only five minutes ten

minutes away I like living by the lake

and that cool breeze in the summertime I

used to live in the North End of Toronto

and neighbors weren't as friendly you

know more well-to-do when keeping to

themselves Parkdale has a large low

income tenants population we have a ton

of high-rise apartment buildings and for

the most part they're folks that have

lived in the neighborhood for a very

long time people knows me in Parkville

and I don't go in maybe everybody's

friendly they helpful

that's why I love the faggot 90% of the

20,000 people that live in this

neighborhood are renters and of them a

higher than average proportion are

paying over 50% of their wages to rent

directly it's a community that is used

to working class struggles people know

that we need to work together and we

need to kind of get on the same page if

we're going to see changes in our

neighborhood for decades Parkville has

been a neighborhood where a struggle has

taken place between working-class poor

tenants and their landlords or their

bosses or the government it's a friendly

neighborhood and people look out for one

another I met my first neighbor on the

day I moved in he just said welcome to

the neighborhood gave me a magnet that I

saw in my fridge and that's just one of

the things I have loved about Park girls

it's day one so the nice place to live

Parkdale is really diverse and its

really welcoming to lots of different

folks who are able to start families and

stay in the neighborhood for a very long

time people feel really supported and

there's a lot of community services that

are really in tune with different

communities that they're serving there

are over 20 primary languages spoken in

the neighborhood and it has a high

number of new arrivals from other

countries to Canada living here as a

refugee I've been living in other

countries like Nepal in India and I

never had this sense of belonging and

this sense of belonging that's a comfort

zone for a new immigrant so that

don't get lost in a new country in your

culture although we Tibetan people came

here as a refugee scatter Canada

majority people are thinking

bulbulay especially if you're visiting

Parkdale for the first time Gritty often

in your face this neighborhood is now on

the gentrification fast-track how could

it not be look where it is people have

talked about Parkdale facing

gentrification for maybe 20 years now

and I think the word gentrification can

sometimes make that process a little

unclear for people when the process

itself is very clear in our neighborhood

it's a process of displacement it is

mostly a phenomenon of force of economic

and physical force exerted on

working-class people that destroys

working-class life and working-class

neighborhoods rents are they increasing

and if they increase too much rent that

we cannot effort landlords trying to

pick up talent so that they can get milk

and from which they can get more money

the landlord tries to get that tenant

out so that they can do very surface

level renovations on the unit give them

new appliances a new coat of paint and

then they can jack up the rent

sometimes 50% and get a new sort of

10-inch into the building so not the

working-class tenants that live in

Parkdale not immigrant families that

live in Parkdale

but generally young professional well

off white tenants and also the state

plays into it as well deportations have

gutted this name

in a lot of really severe ways up until

only recently this had been a

neighborhood in which a large number of

Roma and Sinti Hungarian and checked

refugees came and threw the concerted

effort of the state they were they were

systematically removed from this

neighborhood and deported back to really

deplorable conditions there's large

parts of our community that are missing

the Tibetans have been living here for

almost now 15 20 years so it seems that

it's gentrification is disintegrating

the social vibrancy in part a so that's

really disheartening to see that part of

is a poor neighborhood and everybody

helped each other but other people move

in this area they acting like

differently like they are more important

and you and you believe he loved a

different kind of local spots closing

they put in a Starbucks that's changed

the banks are moving out that's not a

good thing

I know the CIBC closed down and I

believe the intent is to put up some

condo complexes there we have two condo

projects moving in and that's just the

beginning that's the thin edge of a very

thick wedge I think so yeah I think it's

a real issue for Parkdale is

gentrification Liberty Village is just

across Dufferin and it's moving in this

direction bloggers and today I'm in

Liberty Village one my favorite hood I'm

going to show you around Liberty Village

is kind of a created community it was a

lot of old warehouses in the

neighborhood that have slowly turned

into a huge condo development another

version of condo land

essentially it is not like single-family

homes it is not large apartment

buildings like it is a very

intentionally designed like professional

development that is designed in a way to

keep

people out brewpubs and bistros and that

kind of environment here 24-hour metro

expensive nail salons and waxing

facilities and here's the spot if you

want to get a mani-pedi on Sunday with

your bestie they wanted to make this a

Liberty Village West but it's not the

pretty village West it's Parkdale I want

to say like I see Liberty Village coming

to cocktail I see things being more

expensive I see more and more changes in

terms of identification and the types of

people that are moving into the

neighborhood that may not care about the

neighborhood as much as we'd like them

to

[Music]

for a lot of people in Toronto or even

people who heard about the rent strike

outside of Toronto it seems like it

started very suddenly that it was this

huge struggle of hundreds of

working-class tenants that just popped

out of thin air but the reality is that

it didn't pop out of thin air I have

seen fliers kind of going about either

on lamp posts or flyers in my building

or just kind of there's a bit of a buzz

just happening I wasn't sure exactly

what it was but I knew that I wanted to

learn more about it so I reached out to

Parkdale organized and then that's kind

of where the ball started rolling I

heard about Parkdale organized somebody

put a flyer on my door so that's how I

first got involved I mean colonisers

really you have done good job the group

Parkdale organized says they don't know

just yet what their next project will be

for now they're taking a much deserved

break after months of organizing

Parkdale organize is good with people

who have come together to organize in

our neighborhoods and people who are

hoping to build the working-class power

in the neighborhood so that we can take

control of the place that we live a

handful of people came together to try

and put an organization to the struggles

that people in the neighborhood had been

facing working-class people face a

myriad of individual struggles within

the neighborhood the idea was to

collectively through solidarity and

direct action

deal with those issues before the rent

strike Parkdale organized had been

around for fifty three four years and we

had been organizing building by building

knocking on doors with places where

people had been facing

French increases disrepair pest problem

and telling people that the thing that

they needed to do was get together with

their neighbors and confront their

landlord directly we had organized at

first slowly in a few buildings and it

was always a hard sell who are you

people

why are you knocking on my door what is

it that you want me to do and we started

to have successes initially struggles

around a major new player in the real

estate market achelous which is a real

estate fund based in Scandinavia that

bought up a bunch of buildings up and

down the boulevards in Parkdale tenants

at a park dale apartment building are

fighting back against their property

owner 188 Jameson the dreamer inside I

know people on 188 where some of my

relatives live also they had this

problem for a few months long before

other struggles that had kind of given a

bit broader conception of what it is

that working people struggle against in

this neighborhood was a worker initiated

strike over a food terminal two major

food hub the largest in southern Ontario

I think the largest in Ontario generally

that employs a lot of tenants in in

Parkdale they went on strike and people

from the neighbourhood supported them as

well once we had started getting those

successes are organizing became much

easier pitch when a bunch of people's

doors people had heard of us before we

started to be able to just buzz up to a

random unit in the building and say hey

we're from Parkdale organized you want

to come talk to you about something and

people would always invite us in those

campaigns started to put a different

idea out there within the neighbourhood

which was that the struggles that people

find themselves faced with not

individual struggles and don't need to

be dealt with individual

that organizing around those issues not

just protesting not just registering

dissent and not just complaining about

them but something that that could be

done so when this situation presented

itself when met cap ridiculously applied

for above guideline rent increases in

several buildings throughout the

neighborhood all at once this rent

strike it emerged from from all of that

previous organizing it for sure took the

actions of grade tenants in those

buildings but it had also taken a lot of

groundwork to get the neighborhood to a

point where it was ready for this type

of struggle

[Music]

my cap is one of two large landlords in

the neighborhood those being Metcalfe

and Vicki leus Brent Merrill is the CEO

now of Metcalfe

also directly owned some of the

buildings in the neighborhood he is a

greedy Pig he's not thinking about poor

people he think he and only but himself

if they increase in each and every other

rent then really we are facing problems

I've been here for three years and I've

gotten those rent increases year after

year a lot of the tenants that have been

here for a lot longer than I've been for

decades on top of it from the stories

that they've been telling they've been

going through those types of things for

years and years and years has always

been an above guideline rent increase

and above guideline rent increase is an

extra rent increased that landlords are

allowed to ask for on top of the annual

provincial guideline the Ontario

government says landlords are allowed a

certain amount and when the landlord has

done extra work in the building if they

have done some capital expenditures that

cost a lot of money they're allowed to

pass on these costs to the tenants to a

maximum of nine percent over three years

on top of a guideline amount so there's

the idea that things are can remain

affordable because of rent control is

actually quite a first one percent on

let's say a standard $1000 is about $10

right $15 to 1.5 percent whereas now

you're asking for four so $40 a month

it may sound trivial and the small runs

but you know for some of the people that

live in this area it's a lot of

blue-collar working-class people and a

lot of people that just came into the

country you know so some people have to

make decisions on whether they put that

extra money to rent or you know spend

that money on groceries or some other

people it's them staying in the building

or not it's not just kind of my personal

position in it it's knowing that an

entire neighborhood and my friends and

people that I would call family are

suffering along with me because they are

unable to pay their rent for these

unrealistic increase

people have tried to fight these above

guideline rent increases in the past but

they were never winning like the law was

not set up for tenants to win so they

had to come up with a new strategy if we

were going to kind of take on the law

and the landlord an opinion had started

to form in the neighborhood that we had

had enough

with the treatment that we had faced we

had had enough of our neighbors being

pushed out of our buildings one by one

month after month and then we were going

to do something about it and at the

something we were going to do about it

was going to involve direct action and

it was not going to be about advocacy it

was not going to be about lobbying it

was not going to be about raising

awareness because all of those avenues

had failed us rent strike was a tactic

that had been discussed by various

tenants doing various struggles up until

this point what a critical mass was kind

of achieved where enough people were

talking about it and the people felt

confident about the experiences that

they had already been through that they

were willing to take it on it started

with 87 Jameson steer the first ones to

go on rent strike we decide to hold back

the rent for a certain time and see how

he's gonna respond and he wasn't too

happy from that more conversation

started in different buildings around 87

Jameson liked on the same street in the

same neighborhood to talk about if there

was more people involved in this rent

strike if there was more people talking

to each other and organizing then we can

be a lot more effective and taking on

the landlord 87 Jameson have early

hauled off their rent strike and

initially tenants from that building and

members from Parkdale organize set out

to to make contact with other tenants in

other

I think the other buildings came on

board because we had people coming

organizing Lobby meetings learning what

they've been going through and how what

they were suffering through listen to

what I've been going through in my own

building or same thing that I'd seen

other neighbors go through as well just

the unresponsiveness from that cab for

me personally it was a pest control

issue and the lack of follow-up by met

cap in terms of cockroaches and mice I

joined the rent strike because of just

the way madcap treats people they took

you like a second-class citizen and I I

just thought it was time for a

correction in attitude I was happy to

join the rent strike and the fact that

there's a fantastic community I want to

organize I was just like it's time in

March we went to met caps corporate head

office on Richmond Street I think it was

about 70 or 80 of us that went down to

landlord's office all together they

locked us out they wouldn't take our

repair request they phoned the police

they told us we were trespassing we

managed to get up to their front door

and they they were behind the glass

laughing at us that's how they viewed us

it's not the first time they've been

protested and they thought this was

another flashing pan it would just go

away at this time it didn't go away so

tenants in this neighborhood are used to

having meetings in their Lobby so we

just had a meeting in the landlord's

Lobby to talk about like this was really

disrespectful the landlord doesn't even

want to speak to their own tenants

they're not addressing issues they're

legally required to address let's let's

let's talk about doing a rent strike in

the neighborhood meet decide on what the

next steps are providing these rent

increases and forgetting the units

we came here today to Trevor appeal to

them as people and they wouldn't even

address us so clearly the only thing

that matters is money so that's probably

the direction we're gonna have to go

there's a God to do something you got to

stop because they are indifferent to us

they are disrespectful they are

disregarding our concern so we got to go

on land right a ranch site so we came

back tried to think of next steps the

next test was to follow the same line

that 87 was on and go on to rhetoric

that was a process that involves lots of

door knocking lots of Lobby meetings

mass meetings as well as escalating

actions of engagement against my cat and

the rest is sort of history now let's

all go to the lobby let's all go to the

lobby let's all go to the lobby to get

ourselves a treat the lobby meetings

were organized I believe by Parkdale

organized a few people would show up and

talk to us about what the living

conditions were like and about the rent

increases we were facing and that way we

started to get to know one another and

sort of explore what was happening and

what we could do about it

I think Lobby meetings help the good yet

time to get opinions from different

people different and learn how to

strategize the lobby meeting this is

exactly what it sounds like they are

among the only public spaces in our

buildings where more than four people

can get

and discuss anything so a lot of times

at the building level that's where the

meetings take place unreal

talk about what's going on and what our

next step on what we plan to do so you

could keep anything and it will be very

often they took myself just going around

the building letting people know when

the next Lobby meeting will be you go

around door to door you knock on

people's doors you have conversations

but what's been going on with those

people what it is that they think about

it and you set a date for for a number

of people to get together from that

building and discuss what it is that

they're gonna do about it you know

obviously when they first started a lot

of people were very skeptical like what

is this they can be chaotic sometimes

it's part Dale there's a lot of

characters and everybody has something

to say to me it struck me as being a

little bit disorganized at first but I

thought this is worth getting involved

in it's become more commonplace for

people in the neighborhood meeting

people starts to know our face so people

are automatically in the building start

stopping and start saying hey what's

going on with this will you know what's

the update what's the word it made me

feel I had support going door to door

and putting out flyers to let people

know what we're all about what we're

hoping to gain by the rent strike our

Lobby meeting was just a good a good way

to get our neighbors connected and get

them informed and make sure that they

knew that they weren't alone in the

situation some decisions get made their

tops are giving up and then and then

those tasks are carried out and then you

have another Lobby meeting to go over

what's taking place and make further

decisions talking to each other trying

to get a consensus important thing is

this every can and get involved

inclusive nest

[Music]

one of the things I enjoyed the most was

the march through Parkdale lots of

support horn honking and people waving

at us the march through Parkdale which a

huge amount of people showed up for the

day we marched meeting in front of the

library and staying there with a few of

my friends and taking up space and being

loud and unapologetic about the fact

that we weren't going to tolerate that

cat's behavior any longer and getting

out into the community and just like

marching around and just picking up

people as we went along there were so

many actions it kind of took on a life

of his own at protesting one of the

owners in Forest Hill this morning a few

dozen tenants they boarded a yellow

school bus and took the protest right to

the front doorstep of one of the

property owners going to the tribunal

and everyone showing up there inside

court we almost nearly hundred people it

was a raucous start at the landlord and

tenant tribunal hearing young and st.

clair protesters delay the hearing by

more than an hour calling for Metcalfe

to give in to their demands

it was the incident when they tried to

run somebody over the truck incident was

friend Merrill a protest in June saw

Metcalfe CEO Brent Merrill narrowly

avoid hitting a protestor outside one of

his bill

having seen the video now I don't know

what it would happen if if I had gone

under the car as it goes off to the side

I really thought at some point he would

slow down it was really shocking really

shocking you always expect the worst for

Metcalfe that just blew me away I mean

that was just they just took the cake

that day they had messed up in a massive

way thankfully Kevin was all right but

in that moment I just like got them you

know I don't want to make this the

centerpiece of what's going on today I

think that what needs to happen is that

they need to recognize that this

community is not backing down we're not

leaving not the one force in all the

building not one force everybody that's

the highlight more than anything that

the collective will and the collective

strength was being fully accessed in

order to carry this out and that was a

hell of a thing to watch and participate

on my favorite part of the rent strike

was the way that it seeped into our

everyday lives he didn't feel as alone

in the building as you may have before

or you knew who was kind of fighting

with you I think it has been like such a

positive thing for the neighborhood

thing I think neighbors are now way more

open to having conversations for a lot

of us you know I didn't really talk to a

lot of people in my building before this

and now it's sort of it brought people

together I started running into people

on the street that would say hello to me

and I asked about the rent strike and it

just made for a much closer community

yeah I just helped build a community

quite a bit I feel like even those who

are not living in madcap tenants were

asking what's going on with madcap

what's happening now what the decision

it got pretty normal that there would be

an impromptu meeting in the produce

section of the no-frills

and it was those those moments that they

were honestly beautiful for me because

so often politics are

just wiped from from our daily lives and

you know people might go to a protest on

a Saturday you know somewhere that's

like half an hour transit ride from the

house but this reality of not being able

to stand on my balcony not being able to

go out on the street without meeting

someone who was in this struggle with me

who had been thinking about it all day

just like me who was worrying about it

who was making plans and really that

feeling that we were in this together

it was the only time in my life when I

had really felt that level of

camaraderie with the people who I lived

with the people I was surrounded by and

it just added this wait this this

content to both our daily lives and the

struggle you know we were all at home

thinking oh my goodness what's the next

thing I can do what else can I do to

help us win because the stakes were so

high it was so real and people are

really curious about what's going on and

are kind of really hopeful because they

see that the tenants are like making

some really huge wins and like wondering

like well how can we do this in our

building like how can we get involved

people wants to do something and they

like what is happening being the

different people that sort of jumped on

board along with us social support so

you know Queen Victoria all the teachers

there stood out on the block and made a

lot of noise on the corner of King and

the Jameson which is really amazing to

see it hundreds of residents here in

Parkdale are heading into their second

month refusing to pay rent in protest of

rent hikes here in Parkdale and now

they're getting the support of some

unlikely allies in the heart of South

Park dale right at the corner of King

and Jameson is a huge elementary school

so many of the kids from South Park Dale

go to that school

the Parkdale elementary school is

surrounded by 19 buildings owned by

Metcalf living five of them are facing

rent increases above the provincial

maximum conditions of poverty of

displacement those are things that are

felt most strongly by children

and the teachers in the schools are very

aware of that they see it in their

students every day they see when they're

tired they see when they're hungry they

see when they have bed bug bites or when

they're afraid that their parents are

going to lose their home they see it

when the students don't show up at the

next school year because they've been

displaced from our neighborhood you know

there were teachers at Parkdale

elementary who tried to take action when

Roma students were being deported on

mass from the neighborhood there were

you know teachers who have talked about

the conditions at the school who have

talked about conditions in the

neighborhood but it's always a problem

when those actions take the form of just

advocacy or raising awareness often the

worst conditions that that we face are

things that are very legal but are wrong

these above guideline rent increases

that have been displaced in our

neighbors are absolutely legal and what

was so amazing about the support that we

had from teachers in the neighborhood

was they've seen how this legal regime

of above guideline rent increases has

stripped our our neighborhood of its

working class qualities has forced

working-class people out of Parkdale and

they were willing in fact enthusiastic

about the opportunity to support

working-class people the parents of

their students in their formation of

working-class organizations that were

capable of taking on the things that are

legal but wrong

I'm in Parkdale we're striking tenants

are putting away their protest signs and

banners now that a three month rent

strike has ended with a negotiated

agreement with the landlord working

class people sat down across the table

from people that represented hundreds of

millions of dollars in capital and

didn't budge I was there for the

negotiation process and that cap came

and they had various employees from

Metcalf

when their main investor showed up I

think our tenon team really walked well

we had discussions and meeting before

the negotiations and we we knew what

they were up to and we knew our demand

usually had one or two representatives

from each building who'd been involved

in the rent strike all along each of the

main buildings that were participating

in the rent strike had a couple of

building representatives that kind of

spread information to the rest of their

pens in their building as well as speak

to all of the tenants in the building to

see what people wanted to do moving

forward the height there were close to

300 people on the rent strike and the

people at the bargaining table were

about 20 of us we went in there with

very very firm demands we had to

negotiate courts were not professional

negotiators so it was quite a learning

experience for sure

so Parkdale Community Legal Services

worked with those building

representatives through negotiations

with the landlord and the investment

person all in all the negotiation

process of it really really well and it

was a very good deal for Parkdale I

would definitely consider this a win I

think the tenants are really going to

want to talk about what the winners were

from the from these negotiations

unfortunately the details are

confidential the numbers are good so

good that Metcalfe has required a gag

order on

the actual specific numbers I would say

that we won yes and there's a lot of

people with smiles on their faces in

Parkdale I think the biggest and most

important result of the red strike is

that the Rennes strike has been

recognized by those that carried it out

as a tactic not an end in and of itself

and a tactic that's employed by

organizing by organizations that are

developed by working-class people there

is a shift socially and politically

underway within this neighborhood and

hopefully hopefully outside of the

neighborhood as well which is that

people are capable of doing things that

they are otherwise told by legal

convention and economic mandate that

they cannot do cheers at a park dale

building as residents mark the end of a

long battle sadly there's no shortage of

things for us to organize around so the

lesson that people should take is not

that they should move to a few other

neighborhoods in cariocans activity and

other neighborhoods should carry on this

activity different types of problems are

there each and every losing

gentrification is happening all over the

city it's not just in Parkdale so I

think it's important that people get the

message that when you stick together we

have a lot more power as a group than we

do as individuals I would suggest that

anyone

hi rent increases to get together with

their neighbors don't go alone you know

get your neighbors involved he organized

go as one which caused a unified front

get organized meet with people in your

building meet with people outside your

building you're more powerful than you

think a lot of people are really

skeptical I mean I remember back in

March and even an April we're starting

to organize the rent strike like even

some of the main organizers now we're

like you guys are nuts like this is

never going to work

everyone's they get evicted nobody in

this building wanted to get involved I

was the only person some people told me

don't watch the boat it doesn't affect

us but now that the rent strikes over

and the negotiations

everybody was everybody just cheering

this on right this is the greatest thing

since sliced bread some people are still

calling us iMac so some other and strike

like that Oh y'all did a great job when

y'all get started how y'all do this how

y'all do that you make you feel good but

the nation a difference I'm happy we

work out very well

I'm emboldened by this right people

now even if something that happens next

I'm having more people with joint

because you had that piece of big thing

there's power in numbers and we had a

loud voice in our voice with hurt that's

what people in the neighborhood have

learned from this experience is that

while there are individual working-class

people that are commendable the strength

and authority that is latent within the

working class which annually is

something that no other social force can

actually touch and it just has to be

organized and that organization takes a

lot of work the lesson to take is do the

work do the organizing carry out the

action win the day and prepare for the

next day

[Music]

[Laughter]