Anti-poverty group pushes city to help low-income tenants battle pests, disrepair

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A London anti-poverty agency is mapping out for city council how London can do a better job helping low-income tenants battle pests and disrepair in their homes.

Toughening up city bylaws to match other municipalities and creating a public extermination service are among the recommendations from LifeSpin, all heading to council’s community and protective services committee meeting on Monday.

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The agency also is recommending that a tenant support fair run for the first time in the spring become an annual event to connect tenants to city staff and other organizations. And it’s calling on politicians to reinstate a program that helps people get rid of pests, cut during budget discussions.

LifeSpin also is urging city hall to make it easier for tenants to report their problems.

“With more and more people being pushed into poverty due to rising costs of living and rent prices, it is important that tenants, especially those who are surviving on low incomes, are given the support they need to advocate for their safety and quality of life in our city,” the LifeSpin report says.

Among low-income tenants living in unsafe conditions in London are the elderly, disabled people, single parents and children, LifeSpin says.

Often, they’re afraid to speak up about their living conditions and feel there’s no help for them. That’s where city hall has to step in, LifeSpin says.

“We want to see some definite changes. We think these changes will help the most vulnerable in our communities,” Meagen Ciufo, program coordinator for LifeSpin, said Thursday.

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“LifeSpin always tries to address some of the systemic issues that are affecting low-income tenants and we’re hearing more and more the effects of these issues on the elderly and the disabled. It’s really affecting their mental health and lives.”

The report arose from a tenant support fair held in March at city hall. More than 100 tenants met with more than a dozen organizations, including social service, legal and protection services.

“It’s very disheartening, what people are going through in their homes,” said Andrea Smith, a King’s University College student who helped organize and run the tenant support fair.

“Showing up to the fair was not the first time they tried to get these issues resolved. They’ve tried to get issues fixed multiple times either through their landlords or the city.”

Continuing the tenant fair is a good way to open up communication between tenants and the city, LifeSpin says.

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But the city must do more, the agency says.

It wants politicians to bring back the hoarding and extreme clean program, cut during budget discussions. Costing $400,000 a year, part of the program helped tenants prepare their homes for exterminators.

“It’s almost like you’re moving. You have to pull everything out of your dressers, everything has to go in bins. There are specific ways you have to prepare,” Ciufo said. “So, for those who are disabled or elderly, it can be pretty much impossible to prepare the unit on their own.”

The extreme clean program should be expanded, in part to help battle infestations in three seniors’ buildings owned by the city and managed by London Middlesex Community Housing, the LifeSpin report recommends.

Hoarding also leads to increased risks of fire and eviction, leading to more homelessness, the report said.

LifeSpin also recommends the city strengthen its property bylaw, adding provisions to ensure entry points for pests are sealed, and properly defining what an infestation is.

“Since pest and vermin problems are such a persistent issue within London, it is time we view it as a public health threat, and address it as such,” the agency says.

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Rather than piecing together with private companies sporadic attacks on pests, London should consider creating a publicly run extermination service for its community housing properties, the report says.

“Currently, units throughout London are being treated with thousands of dollars from property management companies, including the City of London. All without producing proper results or resolutions,” LifeSpin says.

The London Free Press explored that issue in a January 2024 story about Brandi Bulanda, who fought for months to get help removing cockroaches from her London and Middlesex Community Housing apartment.

Bulanda says she had to give up her apartment and personal property after waking up with a cockroach embedded in her ear. She is taking her case for compensation to Ontario’s landlord and tenant tribunal in October.

“Some steps are easy to do,” Smith said. For example, the city can make it easier for people to report problems online. It takes eight steps to navigate the city’s website to report problems with pests, the report notes.

The landlord-tenant task force has asked that be fixed for more than a year, the LifeSpin report says.

Other steps will take time, Smith acknowledged. “But I do think they are doable.”

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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