Patti Pokorchak, a longtime resident of 230 Lake Prom., says her “idyllic” community is at risk of being destroyed and the largest eviction in Canadian history – affecting more than 1,000 tenants in 548 housing units.

: Aloysius Wong/The Green Line.

A plan to demolish more than 500 rental apartments has sparked anger among tenants of five buildings in southwest Toronto.

Patti Pokorchak, 69, has lived in her Long Branch apartment at Lake Prom 230 since 2009. Pokorchak describes her five-building, seven-story complex as “shabby chic”; although the buildings are showing their age (she had to call 311 after five years to have the stairwells painted), she is rewarded with a “multimillion-dollar view” of Lake Ontario at an affordable price. But what draws her most, she says, is the “idyllic” community.

“It’s really the community that I just fell in love with,” says Pokorchak, an entrepreneur and adjunct professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. “I have this relationship with my neighbors where we take care of each other.”

But now, she says, her lifestyle is in danger. A development by Lake Promenade Co-Tenancy calls for demolishing the complex to build two rental apartments and three condominiums ranging from 12 to 30 stories. Pokorchak says that would be akin to demoviction, in which affordable rental apartments are torn down, often in favor of expensive privately owned condos. The developers say that would quadruple the residential density on the property.

If approved, Pokorchak said it would be the largest eviction in Canadian history, affecting more than 1,000 tenants in 548 housing units.

In November 2023, a data analysis by the Investigative Journalism Foundation found that a record number of rental apartments – nearly 1,500 – were approved for demolition last year. In addition, the number of apartments approved for demolition more than doubled from 332 in 2018 to 826 in 2019 after provincial rent controls were lifted for buildings built after November 15, 2018.

“It’s inhumane,” says Pokorchak. “It’s absolutely unscrupulous. I find it cruel. I find it simply disgusting.”

She stresses that it would be equally unfair to evict 558 homeowners in order to densify the area and that tenants should have the same rights because they are also taxpayers.

Pokorchak said older tenants who have relied on their roommates for help are particularly at risk. Some would rather die than be forced to move.

“Some of them are threatening to perform medically assisted suicide,” she explains, describing two of her elderly neighbors. “They’re that age. They’re frail, in their 90s. They’ve lived there for 40, 50 years. They’re not moving.”

Another of Pokorchak’s neighbors, Elaine, has lived in the building most of her life – she moved in 60 years ago at age seven. Elaine’s building would be the first to be demolished under the new plan.

“She has never looked for an apartment in her life – ever,” says Pokorchak. “She has no internet. She is not tech-savvy. She has no car.”

“What do you say to these people?”

Driven by a passion to protect her home, Pokorchak volunteered with the tenants’ rights group No Demovictions when it began organizing in her building. She started an online petition against the demolition that now has more than 800 signatures.

Many residents of the Lake Promenade community have lived there for decades, some have called it home for 50 to 60 years. More than 800 people have signed a petition against a proposed development that would demolish the rental apartments and build five new buildings over the next 10 to 15 years.

: Aloysius Wong/The Green Line.

EXPLODING PRICES

Although the tenants have a legal right to return to the new building after completion, they would have to pay more out of their own pockets for the period until they are evicted.

The City requires developers to provide a rent subsidy for the unit into which tenants are relocated. However, this subsidy is only equal to the difference between the market rent and the average rent calculated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). It cannot replace tenants’ current rent, which can be much lower for long-term residents in rent-controlled buildings.

The development won’t be complete for another 10 or 15 years – a timeframe that Pokorchak says would tear the fabric of her community apart. While she recognizes the need to densify and increase Toronto’s housing supply, Pokorchak argues there are better approaches.

“We probably need more cooperatives, more social housing, more rent controls,” she explains. “Housing is a human right that should not be commercialized.”

Bousfields Inc., planning consultant for The Lake Promenade Co-Tenancy, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, in its application to the City of Toronto to develop the site, Bousfields Inc. writes that its proposal would support “intensification and a range of housing options through the optimization of an under-utilized site within the existing built-up urban area that has good urban infrastructure.”

A City of Toronto notice describes the proposed development by The Lake Promenade Co-Tenancy, which owns the five-building complex. The developers say the plan would help densify the neighbourhood, but Pokorchak says there are better places in the city to create housing without destroying existing homes.

: Aloysius Wong/The Green Line.

In an email to The Green Line, The city recognizes that demolitions “have challenging impacts on existing tenants and is therefore deeply committed to supporting residents and the community as a whole.” It added that the proposed development is consistent with the city’s policy to replace all existing rental housing and that its application calls for a “phased construction plan” that would see replacement rental housing built prior to the demolition of all existing housing.

But Pokorchak says it’s possible to increase housing density without affecting people’s living situations. She argues there are better places in the city for housing densification, particularly near public transit. She cites a planned redevelopment of the current Six Points Plaza near Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West, just steps from the Kipling subway station, as a prime example.

Pokorchak says 75 percent of the space in the proposed development would be one-bedroom apartments that are not “family-friendly” and that most of the new buildings would not be affordable for current residents.

Their message ultimately boils down to this: “Stop destroying houses to build more houses.”

This story first appeared on The green line.