Brampton desperately needs affordable rental units; developers are demolishing them

"I've been living in the building since 2004…I don't want to be retired and then have to find a place to live at 65; that's not the right direction that we need to be looking at."

Cheryl Craig, a long-time resident of 507 Balmoral Drive who is deeply worried about losing the home she has lived in for two decades, joined other housing advocates who descended on City Hall Monday to protest the demolition of rental units across the city by developers.

The current owner, Pulis/Lankin Investments, has filed a development application to replace Craig's apartment building with three others.

Like her, many seniors in the building, including people with disabilities, are living with the fear of getting evicted from homes close to basic services, including the GO station.

Craig said the construction will be difficult for the building’s residents.

"There's a very large amount of seniors that live in the building that need wheelchair-accessible accommodation, and our building is only a four-storey building, which is very reasonable to live in right now." 

Currently, there are no requirements for Pulis to replace the affordable rental units at 507 Balmoral. 

The City of Brampton is looking to change that. Following other cities including Toronto and Hamilton, council members are considering a rental replacement bylaw—or as Brampton has titled it, the Residential Rental Conversion and Demolition bylaw. 

Cheryl Craig, 56, is fighting for affordable housing and senior protections in Brampton while standing against the potential displacement from her longtime home at 507 Balmoral Drive.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

Currently in the development stage, a draft version of the bylaw came to council’s Planning and Development Committee on July 7. The staff report highlighted the dire need to protect units like those at 507 Balmoral because they are few and far between in the city, and developers clearly do not want to construct similar types of affordable housing going forward—preferring the latest sprawling subdivisions that carpet the north end and the expensive highrises popping up across the city, which are much more profitable. 

The staff report highlighted that since 2014 the development of new purpose-built rental housing in Brampton has been minimal. Only 744 new rental units have been created over the last decade, bringing the total to 11,457 purpose-built rental units in the city, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). 

"When we look at the Brampton rental market, we see that new development of purpose-built rental units is very low, with only 2 percent of all new units in the last 10 years being purpose-built rental units," Noel Cubacub, the City’s building and economic development planner, said while briefing council members.

Noel Cubacub, a policy planner with the City of Brampton, explains the criteria under the proposed rental replacement bylaw during Monday night’s planning and development meeting at City Hall.

(City of Brampton)

Current and former council members are to blame for ignoring the need to approve more purpose-built rental units (meaning they are intended for rentals long-term, not to be converted for sale shortly after construction). Critics have long criticized Brampton’s local elected officials, including current Mayor Patrick Brown and his colleagues on council, for allowing the development industry to dictate housing stock in the city. This profit-driven model, with powerful developers contributing the lion’s share of funding for political campaigns, ensuring mayors and council members fall in line, has resulted in a deeply disturbing trend. 

The Region of Peel has all but abandoned plans to create affordable housing in Brampton and Mississauga in partnership with developers, who failed to build even one percent of the affordable units, including rentals, the Region had called for. Private sector builders simply are not interested in creating the types of units more and more residents need.

As a result, the illegal real estate market has exploded in Brampton, with disturbing stories of renters in illegal suites living in horrific conditions, with as many as two-dozen people staying in one basement.

Fire risks, a lack of proper ventilation, shoddy plumbing and dangerous wiring have routinely been found by inspectors in the city. Many of those forced into the illegal rental market are international students and other newcomers who flock to Brampton because of its diverse demographics.

Overflowing driveways are a common sight in Brampton as houses become divided into multiple units.

(The Pointer files)

Those with accessibility issues, seniors and residents with a range of physical challenges have also struggled due to the woeful lack of properly built rental units across the city.  

The lack of new units constructed has led to chronically low vacancy rates for rental units, which in turn has caused the rental prices in Brampton to skyrocket. In 2024, the average rental price for a 2-bedroom unit was nearly $2,700 a month, with many of these in condos or other non-purpose built rental accommodations. For similar sized purpose-built rentals (which have the benefit of rate stabilization protected by provincial rental laws) the price was considerably lower, at an average of $1,922. The cost of a 3-bedroom unit in purpose-built buildings last year was an average of $2,046—$1,024 cheaper than the condo and house rental market. 

Cubacub told council that a generally “healthy range” for a municipal rental vacancy rate is between 3 and 5 percent, which would show “a good balance between supply and demand."

In Brampton, the vacancy rate has been consistently below 3 percent for the past 10 years.

The root of the problem stretches back decades, when developers started pushing through applications that were rubber stamped by council members who approved sprawling subdivisions and, more recently, expensive condos without considering the need for purpose-built rentals. Developers with significant influence over local elected officials profited handsomely for decades constructing low-density, single detached homes; while more and more condo projects have been out of reach for those in need of affordable housing.

Between 2006 and 2010, an average of 60 percent of all houses completed in Brampton were single-family homes, according to data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. That figure has come down slowly since. Between 2016 and 2021, an average of 45 percent of all homes completed in Brampton were single detached units. Apartments have dropped from 14 percent of all housing completions down to an average of just 10 percent over the same period.

This is the opposite of what housing experts across the country have called for in response to the ongoing affordable housing crisis. According to the 2021 Census, in 2020 Brampton’s median after-tax income was $33,600. This means that rent of $2,000 a month would eat up about 72 percent of total median individual income, meaning a tenant would have $800 a month left over to pay for food, transportation, clothing, all utility bills, telecommunications, health-related costs, education and all other expenses.  

In 2020, no apartment units were completed in Brampton.

Peel’s 2020 housing bulletin showed that no growth was seen in permanent rental housing units between 2019 and 2020. Just 0.13 percent (3 units) of new ownership stock was available for low-income residents. It also reported that where most of Peel’s housing stock (72 percent) is made up of single and semi-detached homes, none of these housing types were affordable in 2020. This is partially responsible for the steep increase in alternative forms of housing, primarily the dangerous illegal market. There was a sharp increase in the trend of adding more secondary suites, from 1,706 in 2019 to 2,562 in 2020 (these figures do not capture the thousands of units that are not registered). 

By 2020, 40,611 purpose-built rental units existed across Peel with no progress in construction region-wide.

Since his election in 2018, Mayor Patrick Brown and others on council have shown little desire to establish a progressive, cohesive vision that aligns transit goals, urban density, and affordable housing, something laid out in Brampton’s 2040 Vision—a planning document that has largely been ignored by Brown.

Ahead of the meeting on July 7, Peel ACORN, an advocacy organization for tenant rights, held a demonstration outside City Hall demanding council members add strict provisions into the proposed rental continuity bylaw to ensure these valuable units are protected—or replaced in any new development if an application for demolition or renovation is approved. 

Purpose-built rentals provide a valuable option for low-income households, but are incredibly rare in Brampton, forcing many to seek alternative forms of housing in places like illegal secondary suites often in basements.

(City of Brampton)

As proposed, the requirements of the rental replacement bylaw would be triggered any time the City receives a development application for a building containing six or more rental units. City staff will then evaluate whether either of two criteria are met:

• The average vacancy rate for the preceding 3 years is at or below 3 percent;
• The rents for all existing units proposed for conversion or demolition are below 1.75 times the Average Market Rent.

If either of these are met, it would trigger the requirement for units to be replaced. The City’s draft bylaw does not stipulate to what level that replacement would occur. 

"So we're asking today for affordable housing lost to demolition to be replaced in the new development of a ratio of one to one or more," Tanya Burkart, the leader of Peel ACORN, told council members during her delegation to council. "Tenants must have the first right of first refusal so that these replacement units, they're able to return to them at the same rent with allowable increases, and the unit must be relatively the same size with the same number of bedrooms.”

She continued.

“The devil's in the details. You can't put a family of three into a one bedroom condo. Moving expenses should be paid by the developer or property owner. Tenants who were displaced didn't ask to move. They don't ask to pay the bill. They shouldn't be asked to pay those bills."

The proposed process that would trigger purpose-built rental unit replacement requirements under the City’s bylaw.

(City of Brampton)

According to the staff report, provisions will be put in place to give the evicted tenant the first right to rent the new unit, at a similar rate. But there currently are no details about the rate at which these units would be replaced. 

"The most important element of a strong rental replacement bylaw is protecting tenants when they are temporarily displaced,” Burkart said, “The cost of displacement should be on developers, not tenants, and this means following the lead of cities like Hamilton, Toronto, and others, and including temporary accommodations and rental top-ups."

While ACORN explicitly laid out its demands to council, it remains uncertain whether they will be included in the final version staff are currently refining. 

Tanya Burkart, a tenant leader with Peel ACORN, presents to Brampton City Council on July 7, regarding ACORN’s recommendation for stricter provisions in the City’s rental replacement bylaw.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

As it reads now, the replacement provisions under the bylaw are limited and vague.

According to the wording in section 21(1) developers “may be” required to replace demolished rental units on site, at a comparable off-site location, or through cash-in-lieu payment to the city (meaning no units would be replaced, instead the developer would simply pay a fee) or some combination of the three.

It does not include a mandatory one-to-one replacement ratio, or require developers to cover moving costs and temporary accommodations. Similar bylaws in Hamilton, Oakville and Kitchener all provide some level of assistance to displaced tenants. 

In an interview with The Pointer, Burkart said the community, broadly, will benefit from a stronger bylaw.

"The elimination of loopholes and conditions increases the strength of the bylaw, and we want the bylaw to be as strong and inclusive as possible.”

She’s hopeful that local elected officials might finally listen, after decades of neglecting critically needed affordable housing in one of Canada’s fastest growing cities.

“We're happy that the City is listening and that they understand the need to protect and maintain affordable housing stock, and we're pleased with the City addressing this issue."

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