Image credit: Colin White

Centretown Residents Resist Mass Eviction

For the past year, tenants on Bank Street have been gaining momentum in their resistance to a mass eviction attempt.

Tenants in 17 units are resisting the attempt, calling on the company, Smart Living Properties, to stop the eviction process. They’ve been met by what they view as attempts at intimidation, including the landlord wrongfully issuing N4s to senior citizens the day after the delivery of a demand letter by the tenants.

Residents of 227 Bank St and 178 Nepean St were issued N13 eviction notices at the end of October 2023 by Smart Living Properties, after CEO Tamer Abaza purchased their block through a holding company called 211-231 Bank Street Holdings in 2022. The N13s notified tenants of the landlord’s intention to evict them so their units could be demolished and replaced with new, higher-cost micro-suites.

Even before the N13s, tenants were aware of the planned mass eviction. There was a developer presentation to discuss the development plans in March 2023, and discussions between tenants had been happening on the block for some time.

“We started talking to each other pretty soon after the information got out,” says Eric, one of the tenants who is fighting to stay. “The change in our conditions would be so drastic that it was actually easy for us to start talking to each other and agree to work together to try to resist”.

“It’s scary to have to fight this alone,” says Julie, another tenant who is resisting the eviction. However, “once we talked to other neighbours and our friends it became a whole lot easier.”

Demographically, the tenants on the block reflect the Centretown community in which they live. There are “families, single people, couples. Men, women, all ages, all races.” Says Julie, “It’s completely diverse.” In terms of age, Eric says, “there’s young students and young working people. There are several senior citizens.”

All of the people living on the block are working class, and living on lower incomes. Many are living on fixed income, including Old Age Security and ODSP.

The buildings have many benefits, such as the relative affordability. “I’ve lived here since January 2022. It’s been lovely,” says Amy, another tenant committed to staying on the block. “I’m right on the bus line that takes me straight to school and my work is in close proximity. All of my friends live within walking distance. My apartment is the perfect size for me, with lots of natural light in my big windows. To top it off, the rent is great. It allows me to focus more on my studies.”

Despite Smart Living Properties COO Rakan Abushaar’s claim to have offered relocation incentives that include generous compensation which exceeds what’s required by law, home-finding and moving services, and many other supports, the tenants argue that it is insufficient. Amy, who attempted to take the company up on their offer, found that all the units that Smart Living Properties suggested she move to were out of her price range, and the financial support did not make up for it. “If they couldn’t find a spot for me within my budget and location needs, then how did they expect me to?”

In a deepening housing crisis, the tenants argue that there is nowhere nearly as affordable for them to go if evicted. “What’s the alternative?” Asks Julie. “You have to fight for your home, because the alternative is homelessness.”

Smart Living’s “tenant relocation and assistance plan,” obtained through a freedom of information request, states that eviction notices are to be issued to all tenants. According to an internal City of Ottawa email, Smart Living specifically requested that this document not be made public.

It has not been an easy process. The first step taken by the tenants was to collectively write a demand letter to Smart Living Properties, which they delivered in person to the company’s office on March 7. The letter called on the landlord to withdraw the N13s, cease threats of eviction, and communicate with the tenants as a group rather than individually. They offered, if these conditions were met, to meet with the company to negotiate a “mutually beneficial agreement”, and requested a response from Smart Living Properties by March 15, 2024, or else they would go public.

When March 15 came and went, the tenants received no direct response from the company. What they did receive, however, was a series of new eviction notices. “The morning following our delivery of the demand letter the landlord specifically targeted four different households on the block, who were all senior citizens, with N4 eviction notices,” says Eric.

N4s are issued as notices of eviction due to non-payment of rent. Smart Living Properties claimed that each of these four households was missing rent payments from the past year. Each of the N4s wrongly indicated March 2024 as a period of non-payment.

Two of the households have since confirmed that they had been keeping up with their rent, and that the N4s had been issued wrongly.

The tenants viewed the N4s as a pressure tactic. “[Smart Living’s] only response was bullying a vulnerable group,” says Julie, describing the impact it had on the residents. “Luckily, since we were organized, we were able to talk through that. But that doesn’t undo the amount of stress that was put on them.”

Despite the stress of the situation, and the lack of dialogue from the landlord, the Bank Block Tenants remain committed to defending their homes. Eric says that they have been making sustained efforts to reach out to others in the community. “We started doing door to door in other buildings in November and we’ve been out every weekend.”

Julie mentions that they have also regularly set up a table on their block. “We’ve been out on the corner for five weeks… it’s amazing how much support has come from our neighbours… Some of them have come back and brought friends out to meet us… We’ve even had a few neighbours come out because they’ve heard of us and they’re going through a similar situation… The word is getting around.”

Eric adds that this community support can be seen on the city’s website, where residents can leave comments, giving feedback on the development proposal (which has not yet been approved). “We were able to get access to these comments through a freedom of information request and that was a couple of months ago. At that time there was about a hundred comments.” Now, he believes, there will likely be many more. Out of 88 comments between February 2023 and February 2024 left on the City’s portal, all but the very first two oppose Smart Living’s development proposal.

“One of the central purposes of us organizing as tenants is to force them to re-evaluate,” says Eric. “We want them to consider that there are humans living on this block.”

“They don’t know what they bought here,” says John, another tenant who is opposing the eviction. “There’s a lot to be saved here, instead of just destroying it all. If they started out with that approach, I think it would be a better outcome.”

The buildings on the block have a rich local history, having housed numerous prominent local artists, as well as other members of the Centretown community. The artist studios have been issued eviction notices alongside the residential units. John argues that “By slowing this project down a little bit, or putting a stop to it for good, they’re going to learn what they bought. They’re going to learn the historical value.”

Amy argues that the planned eviction will only make things worse. “Evicting all of us and gentrifying our building isn’t going to “fix the neighbourhood”… Smart Living wants to mass evict my neighbours and I, just to demolish and create tiny apartments intended to take advantage of students by calling $1800 affordable.”

The Bank Block Tenants believe that they will succeed in saving their homes and halting the eviction process. “Our resistance can’t be swept under the rug.” says Eric.

John describes how, even just walking down the street, he hears people talking about what is happening on the block. “What gives me hope,” Julie says, “is seeing that there is so much community support, because I haven’t seen the city of Ottawa supporting us, I haven’t seen the LTB [Landlord and Tenant Board] supporting us. So I don’t have much confidence in that. But I do have confidence in hundreds of people… who say “no. this shouldn’t be allowed.””

The tenants say they have secured legal representation and that a legal defense is being prepared in the event that they end up before the LTB. However, they view the support of other community members as essential to their success.

By Eric’s estimation, “after having hundreds of conversations with neighbours, there’s a theme. Although a lot of Centretown has already been turned over by developers, there’s still plenty of older buildings like ours that have not been through that process yet. And those buildings are full of tenants who have concerns that are very similar to ours.”

The tenants do not see their struggle as being limited only to their block. In Julie’s words, “People are feeling empowered to join with us and do something on their own, or form their own tenant group in their building. That there’s actually something they can do to resist.”

It is this spirit of community support and solidarity that has inspired the Bank Block Tenants to keep fighting, and which has led community members throughout Centretown to join them for the weekly tabling sessions on their block, or talk to their neighbours, or send feedback to the city.

In reflecting on the events at the end of 2023, Julie says “when we went to deliver the demand letter to Smart Living Properties’ office… almost all of the tenants came out. I don’t think there is anything more supportive than having a whole team of your neighbours backing you up.”

“So many people have had this process happen to them with no resistance, no fight, no opportunity to keep their homes, or find new ones. They were just alone. It really strengthens your resolve to try anything to resist that.”