Sonia Israel and her two daughters are among the more than 100 tenants of a housing complex in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood who have been on a rent strike since May, withholding payment in an effort to pressure landlords to stop the process of increasing rents massively.
The landlords – Starlight Investments and the Public Sector Pension and Investment Board (PSP) – are seeking what is known as above guideline rent increases (AGI) of cumulatively almost 10 percent – rent hikes that Israel and other tenants say are designed to push them out of their apartments.
