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Improving legal rights – Housing

Our clinic is involved in a number of housing law reform activities:

  • Lobby for changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to improve the rights of tenants
  • Advocate for changes to local housing policies to improve the rights of tenants
  • Consult with other legal clinics and the Landlord and Tenant Board to improve practice and procedures to improve the rights of tenants
  • Work with provincial initiatives to improve housing affordability, such as the Low Income Energy Network

Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO)

In consultation with legal aid clinics and tenant/housing advocacy groups, ACTO is setting priorities for the law reform and advocacy work that will have a broad impact on the housing issues facing low-income tenants, co-op members and homeless persons.

Other organizations that do work on law reform and systemic advocacy:

Low Income Energy Network (LIEN)

The Low Income Energy Network primarily shares information about their activities, and activities of its members on issues related to addressing the energy needs of Ontario’s low-income households and energy issues.

Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA)

The Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association unites 770 non-profit organizations providing housing in 220 communities across Ontario. Their members include municipal and private non-profits of all sizes, with all types of funding.

Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH)

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness leads a national movement of individuals, organizations and communities working together to end homelessness in Canada.

Our previous law reform activities

To read more about our past activities and projects, read our past newsletters and annual reports.

We feature below two studies we undertook that led to reports about how to change the laws to make them more fair for tenants.

Spinning in the Cycle of Homelessness

Spinning in the Cycle of Homelessness was a 2013 report that analyzed developments, served as a call to action and proposed an outline for the shared advocacy work that was needed over the next 3-5 years.

This report’s recommendations spoke to how we could intervene in holistic and determined ways to help end the cycle of homelessness.

Beyond Bandaids: A Community Response to Homelessness

The Beyond Bandaids Report outlined our recommendations to address the problem of homelessness in our community.