Housing that isn't much of a home

[attach]532[/attach]Sarah Alim is fed up with her landlord.

Over the past six years Alim has slowly watched her 390 Dawes Rd. apartment fall apart from what she says is the neglect and laziness of her landlord.

After countless order forms submitted to her landlord Alim is up in arms over the cracked walls, leaking window sills, a continuously plugged sink and broken kitchen cabinet — not to mention the cockroaches — in her apartment.

To add to her frustration, three years ago Alim said there was a flood above her apartment on the fifth floor. Her walls and wooden windows had been affected by the leakage, which is now home to patches of green mould. The wooden floorboards have dried up and are exposed and jutted.

Even when they fixed her front door tile, it was a patch job and still requires further work.

“I’m not satisfied,” said Alim, admitting moving from Dawes Rd. would not be easy, being an unemployed mother. “They promised lots of things, but haven’t fixed the apartment.”

There are several landlords in buildings along Dawes Rd. who continue to treat tenants with disregard said Beaches-East York councillor Janet Davis, adding they fail to respond when residents need dire repairs.

“It’s an ongoing battle,” she said. “It takes us using all of our city authority to press them into doing anything to those buildings which is extremely frustrating and a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Davis observed several buildings that were built in the 1970’s, including the Dawes Rd. collection, are falling into disrepair because of neglect.

“These landlords have simply not put in the kind of investment that they should have over the years to maintain them in decent condition,” said Davis.

After two days of phone tag with the building’s manager, Metcap Property Management, the Town Crier was unable to connect with a spokesperson by press time.

In the past the city issued property standards notices giving landlords ample time to make repairs. If that wasn’t met then a specific timeline would be ordered by the city. Then the landlord would face prosecution if they didn’t deliver.

Growing impatient, the city has now cut that process to two steps: an order to make the repair in a certain timeframe followed by prosecution if a landlord fails to meet it.

Out of 6,000 apartment buildings the city has checked 177 run down apartments, fixing cracked walls, re-painting peeling interiors and fixing structural damage.

“We are getting work done,” said Davis. “It’s slow and painful, but its probably work the landlord would not have done themselves.”

But Davis said tenants need to speak up and exercise their rights.

Acorn, a group that fights issues concerning low-income earners, held a rally last week to increase tenant voter turnout for the upcoming municipal election.

“The message is simple: If you pay your rent, you should have a proper place to live, ”said Edward Vantz, chair St. Jamestown’s Acorn chapter.

The rally took place in the small park behind the Wellesley community centre and is part of the group’s campaign titled, “My rent, my vote” targeting wards with high densities of buildings where landlords fail to stick to the building code.

During the campaign rally more than 40 people mailed letters to each city council member asking for their rental-housing platform.

“Come election time we are going merge all the numbers we have and let the people of each community how their councillor feels about renters in the community, said Lantz.