“Homelessness & Affordability Crisis”

About 100 households awaiting an eviction decision over a two-year rent strike say they rejected their landlord’s final settlement offer because it would “silence” them if future issues were to arise.

The tenants at 71, 75 and 79 Thorncliffe Park Dr. stopped paying landlord Starlight Investments in 2023, claiming the landlord purposely left their apartments in disrepair and gave them unfair, unaffordable above-guideline rent increases (AGIs). The landlord said the AGIs were necessary to cover improvements to the building.

When settlement talks ordered by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) broke down at the end of March, the landlord continued pursuing eviction, with hearings taking place over four days in June. A decision could come within weeks or months.

This is the heart of Mosqueteria land. It will be interesting to see how the Board rules.

The Thorncliff Park neighborhood in Toronto, ON, Canada has the most densely populated Muslim community in North America. Entire condo units have been converted into small mosques!

TT/asimafsar_ pic.twitter.com/EbLRe6lso0

— sammy 2.0 (@Sammy_canada2) July 18, 2025

Roughly 60 per cent of Canadian mortgage holders will face higher monthly payments when their loans come up for renewal in 2025 and 2026, according to a new Bank of Canada report.

In the latest staff analytical note, the bank says that although mortgage interest rates are expected to gradually decline, most borrowers will still see payment increases relative to their current contracts — many of which were signed during periods of lower interest rates.

The report estimates that in 2025, homeowners renewing their mortgages will see an average increase of 10 per cent in their monthly payments compared to December 2024 levels.

Brent Secondiak served as a front-line cop in the southern Alberta city of Medicine Hat for 25 years, and understands the futility of dismantling homeless encampments and otherwise dislodging itinerants who decide to bunk down in public spaces.

“We used to call it leaf-blowing … you just scatter the leaves, and the leaves end up somewhere else,” he says.

Toronto real estate is finding out it’s not invincible, after all. New Equifax data reveals Toronto CMA’s mortgage delinquency rate surged in Q1 2025. While rising delinquencies are a national story, this is very different from the normalization seen in other Canadian markets. Over the past few years, Toronto’s delinquency rate has more than tripled and reached a multi-decade high.

But Toronto’s a 3rd World Dumpster surely that counts for something!

The next federal census will ask Canadians for the first time if they have experienced homelessness, which Statistics Canada says will “shed light on people who may face significant social and housing challenges.”

Statistics Canada will conduct the next Census of Population in May 2026, and has released its questionnaire ahead of time. The new questions contained in the census will “provide important data to measure Canada’s diversity and support communities across the country,” according to the agency, which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Across Canada, you could hear the eyes of Gen Zers rolling. The headline in The Globe said it all: “CMHC gives up on comparing housing affordability to 2004 levels.”

Where a previous headline-making report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the federal agency whose stated purpose is to make housing affordable, had set out a series of policies aimed at returning housing costs, relative to income, to 2004 levels – by 2030 – the new report dismisses this as “no longer realistic.”