When Sean Grisdale analyzed some 385,000 eviction filings in Toronto and its surrounding areas, he discovered a troubling trend - tenants increasingly faced "no-fault" evictions when they rented from landlords who treated properties as investments.
Such evictions don't involve missed rent payments but are instead based on factors such as a landlord wanting to sell, renovate or use the property for themselves.
The tenants most affected by such evictions? Those living in Black-majority neighbourhoods, the research indicates.
Grisdale, a PhD student in the department of geography, geomatics and environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga, was looking particularly at "financialized landlords," which can include large firms and individual investors that treat rental housing as financial assets.
He says his findings highlight the need for better protections against no-fault evictions.
"Financialized landlords buy units in disinvested buildings, and then their strategy is to renovate and get in higher income tenants," says Grisdale, referencing large firms in particular.
"We need a much more robust system for preventing people from being displaced just because their landlord wants to renovate."
Grisdale's work is detailed in a report published by the University of British Columbia-based Balanced Supply of Housing , a network of academics and community organizations that conducts research aimed at fostering equitable housing systems.
Grisdale examined data from the Landlord and Tenant Board between 2010 and 2021, focusing on Toronto and the surrounding regions of Durham, Halton, Peel and York.
During that time, financialized landlords were purchasing more properties in Toronto and surrounding areas as housing prices went up, says Grisdale.
Such landlords include large firms, such as publicly traded companies, pension funds and private equity firms, as well as individuals who take out a mortgage to purchase condos or houses in the suburbs and rent them to tenants, he says.
Grisdale's report found that no-fault evictions rose from 10 per cent of total filings in 2010 to nearly 25 per cent in 2021.
While more research is needed, Grisdale believes the trend can partly be explained by the fact that it's much easier for landlords to evict tenants for "no fault" reasons, including renovations or claiming to move their own family into the unit.
The report also indicates tenants with financialized landlords in majority-Black neighbourhoods were far more likely to face eviction than the average Toronto renter. One reason for that might be that land values have been rising in those areas, says Grisdale.
He points to neighbourhoods such as Toronto's Jane and Finch area and its Little Jamaica, which are being linked to several new transit lines. Those new transit options will substantially increase land values and raise the price of rent, he notes.
The report highlights the need for policymakers to create a much more robust system that protects tenants from no-fault evictions and higher rents when a landlord wants to renovate. Currently, landlords are allowed to justify rent increases by promising to renovate, Grisdale says. But there can be issues with how that money is spent, he says.
"Sometimes it gets spent on the lobby first rather than fixing problems in people's units - and the costs get passed to the tenant," he says. "But the tenants are not getting the benefit and they might not be able to afford it, and then they get displaced."
In today's market, Grisdale says there's been a large shift to purpose-built rental developments, with developers being offered favourable loans to build such housing. But that still raises a potential problem, he says.
"A lot of developers building these new units are going to be the same actors - these financialized landlords that are identified in this report, who we know historically evict at much higher rates," Grisdale says.
What the report shows, Grisdale says, is that there is a significant need for more non-profit housing.
"Non-profit housing, such as Toronto Community Housing, had the largest decrease in evictions and did not see high rates of evictions historically," he says.
"Ultimately, they are the only form of rental housing that has provided stable tenure to people."
