What It Takes to Get Someone Housed
Each day, housing support workers like Madison McElroy are asked to do the near impossible: get clients out of homelessness and onto a lease in the midst of a raging rental crisis.
When a Guest Takes Over
Unit takeovers are a hidden crisis in Toronto social housing, at the intersection of unaffordability, social isolation, and an epidemic of addiction.
Meet Your New Landlord: a Local Non-Profit
The Neighbourhood Land Trust has been snapping up buildings across Toronto, taking them off the market and into the community. Over 200 units later, they say they’re ready to do much more.
The Realities of Renting While Black
Black renters have always faced discrimination in Toronto. The rental crisis makes it worse.
The Airbnb Loophole Pushing Out Long-Term Tenants
Despite regulations, short-term rentals continue to keep apartments off the market in neighbourhoods like Kensington Market.
At the Landlord and Tenant Board, Tenants Wait Twice as Long as Their Landlords
Applications by tenants take up to seven months longer than those by landlords. Behind this disparity is a skewed system of Zoom hearings and inexperienced adjudicators that can’t keep up with a mile-high case backlog.
The Private Deals Remaking Long-Term Care
In a province with the highest percentage of for-profit LTC homes in the country, new deals are further consolidating the industry into the hands of a few companies with some of the worst COVID death rates in the country.
After a Voided Election, A Surge of Interest in a French School Trustee Race
Last fall, a French school trustee election imploded when it emerged that no one running actually spoke French. Now the by-election in Viamonde Ward 3 — Centre has a crowded slate of eager candidates and an increase in voter enrollment.
A Voice on the End of the Line
For the last sixty years, crisis hotlines have been the emergency rooms of the mental health world. But remote work has transformed the already challenging overnight shift into a deeply lonely one.
The Brutish Lives and Hideous Deaths of Toronto Rats
Rats are cunning, ravenous, daring, disgusting. They stand in for everything squalid and dysfunctional about urban life and we will never be rid of them.
New Downtown Councillors Will Have a Tough Job from Day One—Managing Development
With an exploding population, constant building, and wards the size of small towns, the candidates who win Toronto’s downtown seats will inherit problems, and possibilities.
Call the Police… Then Wait
The Toronto Police take three times longer than they should to get to the most urgent emergencies. Why a $1.1 billion force doesn’t come when you need them.
Pulled Off Wheel-Trans and Forced onto the Subway
Cost-cutting measures will push thousands of paratransit users onto the TTC, with disabled and elderly riders forced into gruelling bus and subway trips.
The Gaping Holes in Our Election Accountability System
Who keeps Toronto’s elections honest? Just the motley collection of activists, weirdos, partisans, and nerds who use the compliance audit system.
How Toronto’s Councillors Became Nearly Unbeatable
The numbers don’t lie: this city’s incumbency advantage is the worst in North America.
The Great (Surprisingly Expensive) Outdoors
Introducing kids to nature is how you build the next generation of environmentalists. But how do you make outdoor education in Toronto affordable and accessible?
A Brine Against Nature
Winter road salt finds its way into Toronto’s waterways all year long, harming wildlife, decreasing biodiversity, and damaging infrastructure.
The Line Between ‘Invasive’ and ‘Native’ Blurs
Not all invasive plant species are damaging to Toronto’s ecosystems. Treating them like they are could do more harm than good.
The Drive to Reduce Car Pollution Hits Gridlock
Pollution from major roads causes premature death and illness, disproportionately affecting the low-income people who live next to them. Solutions are available, but the political will is not.
Carving Out a Brand New Island
With Villier’s Island, the city aims to combat climate change, create a new mouth to the Don River, and add needed housing. But constructing a climate positive neighbourhood from scratch is no small task.