Toronto is finally doing something about city's 'worst' apartment building

The apartment building at 500 Dawes Rd. has long been plagued by numerous health code violations and pest infestations, and now the City of Toronto is finally stepping in to provide relief and repairs for frustrated tenants.

For over twenty years, tenants of the 14-storey building near St. Clair and Victoria Park have dealt with unsafe living conditions, relentless maintenance issues, mice, mould, bedbugs — the works. 

Now, due to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow's recent push to "crack down on slum landlords," the landlord of 500 Dawes, Carolyn Krebs (also known as Carolyn Goodman), was recently fined $200,000 by the Ontario Court of Justice for failing to comply with property standards, and will be responsible for covering the costs of remedial repairs.

"I think that they're aware that they've sort of lost control of the situation," says Ryan Endoh, a member of the tenants' rights group ACORN, in an interview with blogTO.

The amount fined, Endoh says, is ridiculous. "It's not even a month of revenue for this building. They should have been engaging in remedial action and thinking about going in and doing the work a lot sooner, because ultimately, the prosecutions and fines imposed are, at best, a minor deterrent."

Krebs has developed a notoriously awful reputation, even earning the title of "Toronto's worst landlord" from local media outlets. Krebs' ongoing property management issues have placed her in hot water, with more than 170 orders and violations accumulated over the years.

blogTO made several attempts at contacting Krebs over the last two months but has yet to receive a response. 

Endoh, who has been a tenant at 500 Dawes Rd. since 2015, says prior to this week's visit from the Mayor, announcing remedial repairs to the building, the landlord was aware of the mounting pressure but was resistant to fully addressing issues. 

Endoh, who works as a paralegal, says it's not so easy to just pack up and leave the problematic property behind.

Other tenants in the building come from a wide range of working-class backgrounds and income levels, and are on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. While some are single tenants and others have small families, Endoh says many cannot afford to move elsewhere in the city, given that rising housing costs have far outpaced average wages. 

And while 500 Dawes Rd. is by far not the only troubled high-rise in Toronto in need of serious attention, Mayor Chow seems to view it as the first domino in a larger chain of enforcement actions to come.

At the press conference held outside the East York high-rise on Monday afternoon, Chow said the upcoming work "is a message to all landlords" who refuse to fix their buildings. "The City will not stand by and allow it…All renters deserve safe and healthy living conditions."

Endoh remains "cautiously optimistic" about recent developments and says he will continue to monitor the process at every juncture.