Q&As for MMAH’s Municipal Services Offices and Service Managers on RESIDENTtAL RENT FREEZE FOR 2021
General Questions about the Rent Freeze:
1. What changes have been made? How do they apply?
The government passed Bill 204, which amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA) to freeze rent in 2021 for rent-controlled and non-rent-controited units, and give the vast majority of Ontario tenants some relief during these unprecedented times.
This includes apartments, townhomes, detached homes, semis, care homes, and rented sites in mobile home parks and land lease communities.
This atso includes units in community housing where tenants pay market rent and geared-to-income rent, as weti as affordable rental housing units created through various federatly and/or provincially funded housing programs.1
2. Who or what is not covered by this freeze? Why not?
The freeze will not apply to a very limited number of residential settings that aren’t traditional rental units, such as Iong-term care homes, due to the unique needs oftheir operations and residents. The government will continue to monitor and review housing costs in other settings to determine if further measures are appropriate. in those settings, it will be important to balance the benefits of the rent freeze against the impacts to and abilities of certain housing providers to maintain high level and specialized services for people living in these settings to ensure their health and safety.
3. Why are non-profit housing co-operative (co-op) members paying market rates exempt from the rent freeze?
All co—ops in Ontario are governed by the Co-operative Corporations. Community housing tenants living in non-profit housing co-ops who pay market rates are not subject to the rent increase guideline under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA).
These households are exempt from the rent freeze as housing charges (rent) for non-profit housing co-ops are set by a resolution of the members (residents). This feature of self—governance enables the members and their boards to collectively determine whether a housing charge increase is in the best interest of their communities. They work together to keep their housing well-managed and affordable, resulting in market rates that are often tower than the average market rent in the private rental market.
The government encourages non-profit housing co-op boards and members to continue to work collaboratively to ensure that market-rate units remain affordable for their members as the province recovers from the COVID~1 9 outbreak.
1 * Programs include the Affordable Housing Program (AHP) and successor programs including the Investment in Affordable Housing Program (iAH/lAH-E), Social infrastructure Fund (SiF), Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative (OPHI), Home for Good (HFG), and indigenous Supportive Housing Program (iSHP).