Resident Associations Workshop - Multi-Tenant (Rooming) Houses

The City's proposals to rezone all City neighbourhoods to accommodate Multi-Tenant (Rooming) Houses (MTH's) are moving quickly and will affect many parts of Toronto as part of the City's objective to expand housing options. Currently, MTH's are only permitted in the former City of Toronto, and some parts of the former Cities of York and Etobicoke.

A number of Workshops have been held with various stakeholders: the Public, Residents Associations, Students, and Personal Care Homes - that raised a variety of concerns on safety, inspection, enforcement, and other challenges with the existing program.

The proposed framework can be viewed in the following presentation. Some summary details are also provided further below.

The City organized a second Workshop for Resident Associations on Thursday, May 27.

This workshop included a review of the implementation and enforcement items from the first workshop and also provided additional time for questions and opportunities to suggest improvements..

The Multi-Tenant (Rooming) Houses are providing necessary rental housing options, often to vulnerable, at-risk people who need safe and supportive housing. However, the state of many existing legal and illegal homes, and the prospect for more, puts peoples' lives at risk - our first concern must be for their safety.

Residents raised concerns about where and how rooming houses should be regulated to ensure they provide safe and reasonable standards for those in need of this more affordable housing option.

There is concern about the feasibility and the City's preparedness to proceed with the proposed program as currently defined.

Examples of Safety and Enforcement concerns about rooming houses in their neighbourhood were voiced, as well as best practices and suggestions to improve the operations of Multi-Tenant (Rooming) Houses.

this event occurred

Thursday, May 27 6:30-8:00 pm

follow the progress of this project via this link

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Multi-tenant houses are found today in certain parts of the city as part of the rental housing stock. The City licenses MTH's and is responsible for inspecting these facilities to enforce City bylaw standards.

Today approximately 350 homes are licensed (55 of these are personal care homes) but there are also an indeterminate number of 'not licensed' homes in the permitted areas as well as many illegal houses in areas of the City where MTH's are not allowed.

The existing zoning and licensing regulations for multi-tenant houses in Toronto are inconsistent among the former municipalities. Currently, multi-tenant houses are only permitted in the former city of Toronto and some parts of the former cities of York and Etobicoke.

The City proposes creating a comprehensive as-of-right city-wide zoning approach and enhancements to licensing and enforcement to encourage and regulate multi-tenant houses across the city (adding all of York and Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York, Leaside, and East York).

Please note that Multi-tenant houses include Personal Care houses that would provide meals and additional support services to residents, such as housekeeping, laundry, meal preparation and medication storage.

The proposed regulatory framework has four parts:

1. Enhanced operator licensing requirements to promote health and safety

2. An enforcement and compliance program

3. City-wide zoning standards that permit the use across the city, and

4. Initiatives to support tenants and maintain the affordability of housing

Staff is to report to the Planning and Housing Committee in mid-2021 with recommended zoning by-law amendments and a new regulatory by-law that will permit multi-tenant houses in all Toronto neighbourhoods.

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Complete details of the proposed regulatory framework are available in a staff report on Creating the Regulatory and Compliance Framework for Multi-Tenant Houses across Toronto which was considered by the Planning and Housing Committee on November 17, 2020.