An Investigation into the City’s Response to a Vital Services Outage in a Multi-Tenant Home

What happened

After a fire broke out in a multi-tenant home (commonly known as a “rooming house”) in September 2023, utility providers shut off natural gas and some of the electricity to the building. None of the tenants had heat or hot water, and tenants on one floor had no power. After living without vital services for one week, the tenants called the City for help to get their heat, water and electricity restored.

The City of Toronto has a bylaw requiring landlords to provide vital services such as gas, electricity and hot and cold water to tenants. The City’s Municipal Licensing & Standards Division (“MLS”) had the power to push the landlord to restore the vital services. But MLS decided not to enforce the bylaw.

Unable to tolerate their living conditions, 10 of the 11 tenants moved out. The experience had affected their physical and mental health and resulted in a loss of dignity. Some of them moved into homes with higher rents and less security. One of the tenants remained in the building through the winter, without heat or running water. The vital services outage lasted for six months.

What we did

As a result of a tenants’ union bringing this issue to the attention of Ombudsman Toronto, we launched an investigation on June 5, 2024, to look into the City’s response to the tenants’ requests that the City help restore the heat, water and electricity in their building.

The investigation was led by Ombudsman Toronto’s Housing Unit, under the direction of the Deputy Ombudsman, Housing.

Our investigation

Our investigation considered:

• the adequacy of the City’s investigation into the loss of vital services
• whether the City’s response was consistent with its bylaws, policies and procedures
• the City’s communication with affected tenants and their representatives
• whether the City’s response was consistent with the Toronto Housing Charter and a human rights-based approach to housing

During our investigation, we learned that the Housing Secretariat, through its Eviction Prevention in the Community program (EPIC), also declined to help the tenants after being contacted by the tenants’ union and MLS staff. Based on this information, we expanded the scope of our investigation to consider:

• whether EPIC’s decision not to help the tenants was fair
• whether EPIC’s decision was consistent with the Toronto Housing Charter and a human rights-based approach to housing

What we found

MLS acted arbitrarily and did not enforce its own bylaws

Our investigation found that MLS acted arbitrarily and showed a clear reluctance to enforce the vital services bylaws. Even before it visited the building, MLS had determined it would not take action on this request. MLS should have visited the building within 48 hours of receiving the tenants’ requests but waited more than two weeks instead. It carried out a flawed investigation of the tenants’ service requests, failing to follow many of its own policies and procedures.

MLS staff were not properly trained on bylaws and procedures

MLS staff were not properly trained in the vital services bylaws, some of the relevant procedures, or the Toronto Housing Charter. Additionally, they were not adequately supervised. They did not collect and ignored relevant evidence, while placing significant weight on the landlord’s circumstances. Almost every action and omission throughout this investigation showed a bias on the part of MLS that the benefited the landlord and worked to the detriment of the tenants.

EPIC lacked clear policies and procedures

We also found that EPIC within the City’s Housing Secretariat lacked clear policies and procedures for its delivery of emergency housing services. There is no written policy or process to guide EPIC’s delivery of emergency assistance to tenants facing displacement. Further, EPIC took over a month to respond to MLS’ request for help, a delay we found to be unreasonable.

City staff’s actions were inconsistent with Toronto Housing Charter commitments

Finally, we found the City’s actions were inconsistent with its commitments in the Toronto Housing Charter to progressively realize the right to adequate housing. The Toronto Housing Charter applied in this situation because the tenants were living in unsafe and uninhabitable conditions and MLS did not enforce the bylaws that are intended to ensure the adequacy of housing.

Our recommendations

Ombudsman Toronto made 27 recommendations, including that:

• MLS should review how it enforces the standards for rental housing and develop a process for responding to the loss of heat, power and water.
• MLS should improve the training and supervision of bylaw officers.
• The City’s Housing Secretariat should develop guidelines on exercising discretion in the delivery of emergency assistance through EPIC.
• Staff at EPIC and MLS engaged in housing should be trained on the requirements of the Toronto Housing Charter.

The City has accepted all 27 of the recommendations made by the Ombudsman in his report. We will be following up to ensure its recommendations are implemented.

Read the report

Read the full report, An Investigation into the City’s Response to a Vital Services Outage in a Multi-Tenant Home, including detailed findings and recommendations.