The door to Julia Farquharson’s cozy two-bedroom apartment in west Toronto opens to an unwelcoming embrace of hot air that she likens to a burning oven. Inside, her kitten seeks shelter in the shade under her bed.
Ms. Farquharson, 74, has been a resident in Etobicoke North for the past 15 years, living in one of more than 2,000 buildings operated by the Toronto Community Housing Corp., or TCHC, a non-profit owned by the City of Toronto that caters to low and moderate-income households.
But her apartment, like many others within her building and across the city, does not have central air conditioning. That means she has little relief during the summer, especially during heat waves when the humidity can make it feel like more than 40 C.
“I’m on the side of the building where the sun comes up in the morning and doesn’t come down until night, so it’s extremely hot,” Ms. Farquharson said, adding that this remains the case all year round.
Lederman: With deadly heat, air conditioning is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity
Tenant and environmental advocacy groups in Toronto have been pushing the city for years to implement a maximum heat bylaw of 26 C that would force landlords to take steps to mitigate the heat, including by installing air conditioning. The city already has a bylaw that requires landlords to maintain a minimum temperature of 21 C during the winter, but there’s no equivalent rule setting a maximum temperature in the summer.
Those calls have been growing louder this year, with the launch in June of the Toronto Heat Safety Coalition. The involved groups are advocating for a maximum temperature bylaw while highlighting the experience of tenants who are living without air conditioning, at a time when the city is experiencing more heat waves as a result of climate change.
The issue is compounded for older adults with health issues who are more vulnerable to heat waves, such as Ms. Farquharson. She has tried to acquire support from a City of Toronto program that subsidizes medical expenses for low-income residents, which can include purchasing air conditioning units or fans.
But her application – which included a letter from her doctor explaining her need to have cooling in her unit – was rejected because, she was told, her old-age pension was deemed too high.
“If you want seniors to live healthy and comfortable lives in their homes, then you have to at least provide help with paying for their air condition or any other device that they might use,” she said.
Jacqueline Wilson, lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, one of the groups involved in the heat safety coalition, said the issue took on new urgency after a heat wave in B.C. in 2021 killed more than 600 people. Of those deaths, 98 per cent occurred indoors, and most of the deceased were older adults with compromised health who lived alone and without air conditioning, according to the BC Coroners Service.
Ms. Wilson said that, just as heat is seen as a basic necessity in the winter, providing adequate cooling in apartments during heat is important to ensure tenant safety and well-being.
“It’s just the other side of the same coin, but it’s equally necessary,” she said.
The coalition also includes, among other groups, the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, Toronto Environment Alliance and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
In addition to the heat bylaw, the coalition is also pressing municipalities to provide funding to income-eligible residents to install heat-pumps or air conditioning units, and provide free TTC rides on extreme heat days so people can safely get to places like cooling centres.
In June, 2023, Councillor Shelley Carroll put forward a motion at Toronto City Hall requesting the implementation of an adequate temperature bylaw. Council voted to direct staff to study the issue.
In an interview, she said there was little data on extreme temperatures in rental housing and tenant complaints, but that information is now being collected and could be available by the end of 2024. This will include research gathered from calls made to 311 of people asking what the city can do about them living in extreme indoor temperatures.
“We’re engaging the community to figure out how best to proceed,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to put something into effect in time for the warm weather season next year.”
Arianne Robinson, Mayor Olivia Chow’s press secretary, said in an e-mail that summers in Toronto are getting hotter and that not having a place to cool down is detrimental for Toronto tenants without air conditioning. She said the city is doing work on the problem.
In the meantime, she noted that a city bylaw requires property managers or landlords to provide information to tenants about air-conditioned locations or cool locations within the building and other locations on the property.
Shane Gerard, a senior communications co-ordinator for the City of Toronto, said that, although city bylaws do not require all landlords to provide air conditioning to tenants, if a rental unit already has it, the property standards bylaw requires that landlords turn it on between June 2 and Sept. 14 so as to maintain a maximum indoor temperature of 26 C.
Statistics Canada published a report last year that found renters were less likely than people who owned their homes to have air conditioning. That may be because landlords don’t provide it or because buildings don’t allow their use, the agency said.
Nationally, 61 per cent of people in Canada live in a home with air conditioning, while 49.8 per cent of people who don’t own their home have AC. In Ontario, the province-wide rate is 85 per cent, but 71 per cent for people who don’t own their home.
Meyira Winer, lead organizer at Toronto ACORN, a union of low- and moderate-income people, said she is concerned for members, as extreme heat can leading to exacerbated health issues and emergency hospital visits. Ms. Farquharson, for example, has a history with arthritis, asthma, pulmonary lung conditions and blood clots in lungs, and she takes blood thinners everyday to manage her health.
Eligibility for the program that rejected Ms. Farquharson’s application seeking cooling in her apartment depends on the cost of a required medical item, as well as the applicant’s financial situation and family size, Mr. Gerard said. He noted that unsuccessful applicants have the option to appeal.
Most of the buildings owned by Ms. Farquharson’s landlord, the TCHC, were built before air conditioning became common, spokesperson Kimberly Moser wrote in an e-mail. Only 76 TCHC buildings have central air, but the agency is working on upgrades to its properties, including adding air conditioning, she said.
In 2020, the TCHC removed tenant-owned window air-conditioning units that were not located on balconies because of health and safety concerns. In exchange, tenants were given free portable air conditioners, Ms. Moser said.
But Ms. Farquahrson said the one she was provided broke down shortly after she received it. And, it wasn’t until July of this year – four years later – that she was finally able to secure a new one from her building.
“The heat is unbearable, and the people who cannot afford it are the ones really dealing with the dangerous effects of extreme heat illness,” she said.
“It’s a shame the city is denying me the health care I need to stay safe in this heat.”