Friday, March 27, 2020

Benjamin Ries is the supervising lawyer for housing law at Downtown Legal Services, the community legal clinic at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

In an op-ed published in the Globe and Mail, March 26, Ries writes on the importance of staying home – including those who cannot afford to pay rent.

"When a tenant can’t pay their rent, they are often presumed the author of their own misfortune. We are quick to suggest they have agreed to lease a property they can’t afford or haven’t enough savings to absorb the unexpected. Vacancy decontrol and rapid market rent increases reinforce these assumptions. If you can’t get your ducks in a row with this “great deal” on your apartment, and there’s a long lineup of prospective tenants willing and able to pay more, how can you deserve to stay where you are?"

Read the full op-ed in the Globe and Mail