Roxanne Simzer’s life has turned upside down, with COVID-19 devastating her ability to pay her monthly rent. Simzer, like many others, does not have a steady income due to the pandemic and the measures taken to reduce the spread of the virus.
“In the past month, my world has completely changed,” said Simzer in an email.
“I’ve never watched the news so intently before, and I have constant anxiety surrounding this pandemic.”
Simzer lives in Hull, Que., along with her partner and two other roommates. She had been job searching, but was not having any luck in securing an interview because businesses’ were cutting back their operations.
“I haven’t left my apartment building since Feb. 28 out of fear and ask my partner to go get necessities for me because I am at higher risk,” she said.
Within the household, there have been layoffs and one resident is a student. Those who were laid off are awaiting employment insurance in order to support themselves. As a result, Simzer has decided to participate in a rent strike organized by a group in Ottawa, that started on April 1.
Micheal Cowan, a fourth-year engineering student at Carleton is one of the co-founders of the group.
“I was sitting on the couch with my roommate and my shifts were being cancelled one after the other because of COVID-19 and I was concerned with how I was going to pay my rent that month,” said Cowan.
“We were on a community care forum when we noticed someone was posting that people should perhaps pressure landlords during this time, and after I saw that I created the rent strike group to see if there was anyone else in the same position,” he said. “I thought maybe together we could put the pressure in the right places.”
The group currently has over 1,200 members on Facebook and provides them with information concerning tenant rights and how to safely and successfully keep their rent.
The reason for a collective action approach is because there are a lot of people who will not organize themselves, do not know their neighbours and they will have to pay rent and then won’t have a choice between rent or food this month, said Cowan.
“If we show solidarity with them … they won’t get singled out,” he said.
The group has three official demands: a nationwide freeze on rent, a delay on rent increases, and no back pay.
In Ontario, landlords are allowed to legally increase rent by 2.2 per cent each year for existing tenants in 2020. The percentage changes each year.
“We want to apply pressure in the right places and let the government and property management groups know what we are doing and hopefully that pressure will move upward through the government,” explained Cowan.
The federal government announced the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), intended to help those impacted by COVID-19. However, many are not eligible, including students.
“There are over 600,000 people that aren’t eligible for EI or CERB, and I’m one of them, so for us there is no support or other option,” said Sam Hersh, a member of the rent strike group.
“A lot of people are being forced to pick between food, rent, and medication,” said Hersh.
Landlords are asking tenants to dig a little deeper and pay rent, when they don’t have anywhere deeper to dig, he said.
Simzer said she is participating in the strike not only for her household, but for others as well.
“I’m doing it because there are those much worse off than me and my household are–those with zero support, single parents, those enduring pregnancy during this. They need to be backed up as well,” she said.
Graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
