The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is accusing Michael Klein, a landlord in Southern Ontario, of being the province’s biggest perpetrator of renovictions.
Klein owns 21 buildings across Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph and London. On Oct. 2, ACORN members living in Klein’s buildings will lead protests at their buildings.
The action location in the Waterloo Region was 250 Frederick Street at 1 p.m. on Oct. 2.
Klein has been accused of predatory actions including buying buildings under a number company, listing false office addresses on paperwork to avoid detection, doubling rents in vacant units and more. The tenants facing renoviction are low to moderate income.
“I have been a renter since I’ve moved out of my parents’ house, for about 20 years. I do not see that changing any time soon,” Jacquie Wells, a leader for the Waterloo Region chapter, said.
Wells has been involved with ACORN since 2023 and was inspired to be involved when she started learning about renovations and tenants’ rights. She enjoys that ACORN is about collective action and is not a government agency or non-profit.
“There are multiple buildings in Waterloo Region that Klein infiltrate…One of the things that he does is renovicts long-standing tenants in the buildings that he has,” Wells said.
ACORN is a membership-based community union of low and moderate-income people established in 2004. Members take direct action against landlords and corporations.
In 2023, ACORN earned a commitment from the Federal government to review the tax treatment of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS).
There are three levels of memberships: full members pay $15/month, associate members occasionally contribute and provisional members participate in their community events.
ACORN members want to see renoviction bylaws like the ones passed in Hamilton and New Westminster, B.C.
The bylaws require landlords to apply for a license within seven days of missing a tenant NN13 eviction notice for major renovations.
Landlords would also provide tenants with a Tenants Rights and Entitlements package and provide tenants wishing to exercise to return to their unit at the same rent with temporary accommodation or a rental top up for the duration of the renovations.
“The more people we can get to organize, the more we can advocate for renters by-laws,” Wells said.
“The whole point of doing a renoviction is to get the old tenant out and mov[e] new people in,” Wells said. “The incentive to renovict is very high here, locally, that goes beyond what the province has.”
Tenants who are in immediate danger of being evicted include seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants, newcomers and low wage workers. ACORN hopes to encourage local support to protest Klein’s actions.
Klein is involved with Family Properties, a rental company based in the GTA and Southern Ontario. It is a third-generation family-owned company.
“We want landlords to have a written official statement from an engineer that the unit must be vacated in order for the renovations to occur. We also want landlords to renovate in a timely matter, and not take six months for a project that takes two weeks,” Wells said.
ACORN demands that Ontario introduce vacancy control to cap rent increases on vacant units to remove the financial incentive for renovations.
ACORN also urges the Federal government to implement a public registry of ownership. This would allow tenants to know who their landlords are. Also, they urge that the government requires provinces and territories to include this as the blueprints for the Renter’s Bill of Rights.
The Waterloo Region faction of ACORN is fighting locally for renoviction and rental replacement bylaw.
“Locally we are focusing more on outreach,” Wells said.
People can get involved by signing up for the mailing list by reaching out to Vonica Flear, lead organizer of ACORN Waterloo Region at kw@acorncanada.org.
Participants do not need to be paying members to go to the meetings or participate in any way. Tenants are encouraged to reach out and organize in their buildings.
ACORN offers workshops in people organizations. Signing up as a union member also helps give the person access to a staff member to help build the tenant union.
Michael Klein did not respond to request for comment in time for publishing.
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