Evictions are institutional failure

Walied Khogali Ali –

Black History Month is a time to celebrate resilience, leader­ship and the profound contri­butions of Black communities to this city. It’s also a time for institutional accountability.

Approximately 40 per cent of tenants in Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) identify as Black, according to TCHC’s 2024 annual report. Yet a freedom of information re­quest has revealed a sharp and deeply troubling escalation of evictions from the city’s hous­ing system, which is designed to provide stability for those with the lowest incomes and highest needs.

The data is not ambiguous and the trend is not subtle.

The consequences are not the­oretical. They are measurable and preventable.

The numbers tell a disturbing story

According to data TCHC pub­licly released on January 5, to­tal evictions increased from 162 households in 2023 to 237 in 2024 – and to 391 in the first 10 months of 2025.

More alarming, data released by Tribunals Ontario on January 22 showed eviction outcomes involving TCHC tenants came to 624 in 2023, while TCHC publicly reported only 162 – a difference of 462 households, almost three times the number TCHC disclosed. In the first 10 months of 2025, TCHC public­ly reported 391 evictions while Tribunals Ontario recorded 541 – 150 additional households, or 38 per cent higher.

Thus, eviction outcomes are escalating, and reporting dis­crepancies persist.

The post-moratorium spike

TCHC’s eviction moratorium was lifted in 2023. The tribu­nal’s 624 recorded eviction out­comes was the highest on record for a post-moratorium year.

At the same time, mediation and alternative dispute resolu­tion dropped sharply. Only 77 cases were resolved through mediation or consent orders in 2023 – the lowest use of medi­ation during the period exam­ined.

Evictions peaked while me­diation declined. This directly contradicts TCHC’s stated evic­tion prevention commitments.

The unfinished lessons of 2010

In 2010, following the trag­ic and preventable death of a senior tenant, the Report on the Eviction of Al Gosling led by Judge Patrick J. LeSage set out clear principles: eviction must be a last resort; meaningful ear­ly intervention must precede eviction; mediation must be in­stitutionalized; and senior-level oversight is essential.

As eviction outcomes escalate and mediation declines sixteen years later, transparency gaps, no race-disaggregated report­ing, and dormant participatory governance structures are also evident. The commitments of 2010 have not been institution­alized.

Eviction and systemic an­ti-Black racism

Without race-disaggregated data, it is impossible to assess whether eviction outcomes dis­proportionately affect Black tenants. But housing scholar Nemoy Lewis has demonstrated that eviction processes dispro­portionately harm Black com­munities, entrenching housing precarity and compounding sys­temic inequality.

When eviction escalates with­in a housing system serving a predominantly racialized tenant base, without transparent racial analysis, equity commitments ring hollow. Further, the Black Tenant Participatory Commit­tee, established to ensure Black tenant voices inform govern­ance, has not convened since its formation. Appointments were made but meetings did not fol­low.

Equity cannot exist without participation. Accountability cannot exist without transpar­ency.

Eviction is a policy choice

Social housing is intended to provide permanent stability. Evictions from social housing trigger homelessness, family separation, long-term trauma and community destabilization.

This is not a failure of tenants, but a failure of governance.

The case for an immediate moratorium

Given the dramatic escalation in eviction outcomes, and the persistent reporting discrepan­cies, the decline in mediation during peak eviction years, the absence of race-disaggregated data, and the unfulfilled com­mitments from the 2010 inquiry, Toronto must implement an im­mediate moratorium on evic­tions from social housing.

This moratorium should re­main until at least next fall and until an independent review ex­amines eviction drivers, report­ing discrepancies, mediation practices, arrears policies, racial impacts and compliance with the 2010 inquiry. Evictions must not continue while the public lacks clarity regarding why they are escalating.

A moratorium is not radical. It is responsible governance.

The TCHC Board has the au­thority. City Council has the re­sponsibility. Now is the moment to act.

Walied Khogali Ali is a com­munity organizer and advocate in Toronto Centre.