City approves new demoviction guidelines for rental replacement

Anthony Marcusa –

 To support tenants experiencing rental displacement and bad-faith demovictions, City Coun­cil has adopted new guidelines to monitor and evaluate rental housing demolition applica­tions.

The Rental Replacement Handbook, created by Dillon Consulting Limited in conjunc­tion with tenants, developers and housing advocates, seeks to clarify expectations, rights and responsibilities regarding hous­ing demolition and replacement. The guidelines aim to ensure that tenants facing temporary displacement have financial support and receive equitable replacement units, protect those with special needs, and promote clear communication.

Walied Khogali Ali, co-ordi­nator of Neighbourhood Pods TO and co-chair of the Regent Park Neighbourhood Associ­ation, is optimistic about the guidelines, though he and oth­ers hoped for a more compre­hensive framework to protect tenants, particularly racialized, low-income, and immigrant communities.

“We need to strengthen en­forcement and monitoring,” Ali said. “There needs to be trans­parency. We need outcomes re­ported, and we need to collect and publish data on tenant relo­cation.”

Tenants surveyed by Dillon criticized a lack of engagement and support from developers, particularly for vulnerable ten­ants, as well as uncertain time­lines and poor replacement housing. Advocates called for compensa­tion reviews and increased over­sight and City support. They also argued for recognition of not just the financial hardship, but also of the social and mental struggles that can arise when tenants are uprooted.

The downtown’s Ward 13 (To­ronto Centre) has the most res­idential construction starts over the last three years, including 3,889 in 2024.

City Council also confirmed that the Planning and Housing Committee receive further meas­ures and resources to support ten­ants facing demovictions by Jan­uary 2026.

The tenant collective No Demovictions urged more protec­tion for renters. The group called for strengthening enforcement, meaningful and accessible sup­port and outreach to renters, and ensuring fairness and equity in compensation and replacement units.

“Our recommendation supports maintaining affordable rental housing across Toronto by mon­itoring speculative practices in housing development, and en­suring that all tenants have safe, adequate housing while they are displaced.”

The new guidelines were sup­ported by Neighbourhood Pods TO, the Federation of Metro Ten­ants’ Associations, Right to Hous­ing Toronto, the Moss Park Coali­tion and Social Planning Toronto.

“Demovictions often result in the permanent loss of deeply af­fordable housing and destabilize already vulnerable communities,” stated Nellie’s women’s shelter, which support the No Demovic­tion recommendations. “Many of the people we serve face com­plex barriers including trauma, language access issues, and lack of knowledge about their rights. Tenants often tell us they are con­fused by the process, unaware of their entitlements, and afraid to speak up.”

Development groups pushed back on certain items in the guidelines. “If tenants return to a larger unit with more bedrooms, they should pay rent commensu­rate with the upgraded unit size,” wrote Danielle Binder of the Building Industry and Land De­velopment Association.

Dillon’s report noted differenc­es between tenants and develop­ers, including the level of com­pensation provided to displaced individuals. “The development community indicated that tenant compensation packages, includ­ing rent gap assistance, impacted the feasibility and increased the complexity of redevelopment ap­plications.”

Ali offered some simple solu­tions. “Build more rent-geared-to-income housing,” he said.

“It’s not just an issue of supply. Have a pathway to home owner­ship, and provide social housing communities protections against displacement and gentrification.”

Ali is part of an initiative to in­crease awareness of tenant rights and resources in order to prevent unfair demovictions. The project, funded in part by the federal De­partment of Justice, seeks to pro­vide multilingual legal education, workshops and webinars, and community outreach to advocate for housing rights in Regent Park.

No Demovictions pointed to a fundamental conflict in renter dis­placement.

“Developers and tenants are in­formed by a completely different set of needs,” the group wrote. Developers have a ‘fiduciary re­sponsibility to maximize profit,” and are “required to advocate for policies and legislation that would shortchange the tenants.”

This basic tension will contin­ue, Ali agreed. “We need to disin­centivize financializing housing.”

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