Your City protects renters, and keeps people housed

In Toronto, half of our residents rent their homes. You work hard. You pay your rent on time.

But you’re still lying awake at night: Can I afford to stay here?

Diane Alegre knows that fear.

For fifteen years she and her two kids have called 100 Cosburn home: birthday parties, first days of school, scraped knees kissed better in the hallway.

Then on November 28, a notice slipped under her door, a rent increase: $950.

Diane lives paycheque to paycheque. Every dollar already has a name on it – groceries, hydro, her kids’ school supplies.

In desperation, she sold her car. The car that got her to work. The car that got her kids to school. She told me this, and the tears came. Because selling your car isn’t a solution. It’s giving up pieces of your life, hoping it’s enough.

Then she called City Hall, and everything changed. Her City Councillor connected her with the Federation of Metro Tenants – an organization funded by the City of Toronto to protect renters just like Diane.

The Federation didn’t just give her advice. They showed up at her building. They found seniors on fixed incomes, terrified and alone, staring at the same impossible notice.

Together, they organized. And the landlord backed down.

Diane and her kids got their stability back.

This is why we’re investing $4 million in the 2026 budget to enforce the new Renovictions Bylaw and expand the Toronto Tenant Support Program.

We’re putting $10.8 million into Rent Bank grants – nearly double what it was when I took office.

Between Rent Bank, the Eviction Prevention in Community program, and the Canada Ontario Housing Benefit, we’re helping 4,500 households – about 9,000 people – stay housed.

If you lose your job, if someone gets sick, if you face an unexpected cost – this support can be the difference between keeping your home and losing everything.

But it’s not just about illegal rent increases. It’s about the conditions you’re living in, and repairs ignored for months.

You deserve better. You deserve a landlord who fixes problems. You deserve a city government that has your back.

• We’ve hired more RentSafeTO inspectors – doubling capacity from 36 officers when I took office to 60, with 73 total staff.

• We’re more than doubling free air conditioners for seniors and low-income renters.

• We’re bringing forward a Maximum Heat Bylaw to Council later in 2026 – because extreme heat is dangerous, and everyone deserves to be safe in their own home.

This year, the City will break ground on more than 28,600 homes, almost 10,000 of them you can actually afford — in neighbourhoods where nurses, construction workers, and teachers can still live.

When we invest in keeping people housed, we prevent the far greater costs of homelessness.

We make sure that one bad month, one medical emergency, one layoff doesn’t destroy a family.

Speak to Budget Committee on January 20 and 21 in person or by video conference. To register as a public speaker at one of these meetings, please contact the Budget Committee Administrator at 416-392-4666 or e-mail buc@toronto.ca by Monday, January 19 at 4:30 p.m.

Send in written submissions and learn more about speaking to Budget Committee by clicking here.